


Emotionally Involved

by mia_always



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-26
Packaged: 2017-12-22 21:50:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 26,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mia_always/pseuds/mia_always
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone involved with the Winchesters would get into trouble and Elaine is no exception. Her connections with demons put her in a risky position after the Devil's Gate opened, not to mention her on and off relationship with Dean. Yet she managed to complicate things by falling for an angel. AU, starts S3, Cas/OC, slight Dean/OC</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hi Sweetie

**Hi, Sweetie**

This was supposed to be her night off, after few days on the road and hunting groups of vampires in Mississippi, not to mention she was with few other hunters. There was one thing she hated more than vampires and that was hunting with newbies. How people wanted to try hunting due to curiosity was out of her understanding and she hated to be the one cleaning up the mess in the end. Which exactly what actually happened on the road. Hunters were unprepared and vampires were too gleeful to pass on easy target.

So there she was; cleaned from bloods before she even came to her apartment (to avoid suspicions from the doorman) and finished berating the newbie idiots when she noticed something wrong on the sky. Her eyes narrowed when she recognized black smokes shooting through the sky. The smoke form of demons shot into different directions and she couldn't finish counting them in when they disappeared, causing slight light disturbance on her neighborhood. She couldn't see where the origin of these demons came from but she had a hunch about it.

"Oh God, Bobby... what went wrong?" she breathed out, fearing the worst thing that might happen to people in ground zero. But before she could reach out her private cell phone, her other phones started ringing simultaneously. A defeated sigh escaped her lips as she involuntarily dragged herself to her office desk. For people who dealt with these craps all the time, some of them really don't understand the concept of  _don't panic and secure your surrounding first_. Just one event of demons shooting at the sky and everyone was panicked.

"Really, Arnold? I thought that black smokes were just signs of fire in different places simultaneously. Demon, huh? Who would've thought?" She drawled while rolling her eyes, "Should I send someone to whack your head until you remember how to recite the exorcism? Very good, now stop calling me unless you don't know how to kill those things!"

"I know what travels on the sky, Travis, stop peeing yourself. Don't you dare call me before you secure your area and you know I know when you're lying."

"John dear, I think that man is shooting you because you shouted the exorcism spell very loudly and it's clearly midnight. Lower your voice, you gave me headache."

"I'd say you really bad at trying to invite me for orgies. I'll get Guildos for you.  _Don't_ mess it up, dear. I'm not in the mood for cleaning up anyone's mess."

"Well yes, I think it has to do with the Gate of Hell being opened but no, I don't know how that happened. Just… check for traps if you're going to hunt some. They might be different than the one we dealt with."

"I'm blushing, Jake, but that won't make me drag myself out of bed this late. Find someone else."

The calls were still coming in and she couldn't avoid it, not when one of them might get a chance to stumble into sensitive information and she needed to know everything. Yet she never understood how some of these hunters suddenly became like lost kindergarten children. It was just more demons coming out at once, couldn't they just snap out of it? She actually wondered how Bobby Singer could handle similar job by himself for few years. Then again, no one dared to be on his bad side. Bobby was the best hunter they ever seen and anyone knew not to mess up with that kind of hunter.

Her lips pursed tightly as she counted her next move. Until now the big problem was most of the hunters had difficulties on exorcising multiple demons at once and even when they succeed, the demons were still appearing somewhere else. It was definitely a lost case if they only focused on exorcising them. But these demons wouldn't just randomly attack people for no reason. There should be something more behind these. Bobby told her that a yellow eyed demon was trying to raise an army but they never knew the reason. She bit her lips; even until now she still couldn't extract related clues about raising a demon army.

Was this the rumored army? And what about Sam Winchester? Was he safe?

She glanced at all her collections about Devil's Gate that Bobby requested few days ago then back to the window. Perhaps it would be better to hit the road herself for this.

* * *

She leaned against the wall, catching up her breath. This had been the twentieth demon she managed to hunt out in three days and still she couldn't find any information what happened that night. They were quiet different that the ones she dealt before. More adapt on fighting, highly informed on hunters, and not to mention, cockier and more annoying to deal with. The hunters were right. This was another level of demon attack. They weren't properly organized but they were skilled soldiers and more ruthless.

And the annoying part that made her still stuck on the road was that they were more loyal and refused to tell her their plan... even under the torture.

She moved slowly towards the corner of the wall, peeking on the other side. So far the demon still hadn't realized that she was being followed. This demon was somehow different than the new ones she had been dealt with. Instead of going killing spree like other newly released demons, she chose to hide herself and sneak around, as if she didn't want other demons to find her. Had she didn't exactly witness that demon possessed its body with her own eyes, she wouldn't believe the woman she was following was a demon. She watched as the demon looked around her surrounding before crossing the road quickly to another dark alleyway. Her wrist extended slightly and tip of a blade coming out under her jacket sleeves.

There was one problem with trying to capture a demon this way; she couldn't trap her under Devil's Trap. She couldn't predict where the demon would go, regardless how experienced she was with demon, and she couldn't just draw Devil's Trap on every inch of this city. One, someone would notice it and two, it was ridiculous idea. Yet she couldn't just kill the demon. She needed information and since her usual demon informant seemed to bail on her, this was the only way to obtain it. And she hated it. She hated the fact that she had to go undercover and left the comfort her condo offered for few days already. She hated the fact that she had to stay in the worst motel ever since that was where the bloody demon chose. Never thought a demon would also need to rest… or maybe she would just pretend to be sleeping to ward off any people who were getting suspicious if she didn't sleep at all.

Deciding that she had enough of this stalking game, she walked openly on the street with the tip of her blade still visible. Just when she stepped a foot on the edge of a park, she noticed a figure hurling towards her. She moved her body backward to avoid the knife that figure pointed at her and twisted her body slight to get her blade in open and thrust at her attacker. Her smirk widened when she noticed the slight crackling voice when her blade slashed her attacker's left side. Bingo. Her attacker, now she could identify as the demon she had been following for a day now, grabbed her right arm and tried to twist and break it when she twisted her body again to follow the movement. She punched the side where her blade slashed earlier, causing her attacker to grunt in pain and released her hand in response. She quickly grabbed her attacker's jacket and then was about to knock her unconscious when her attacker said something she didn't expect her to say.

"Elaine?" Her attacker asked incredulously, "why the hell are you trying to kill me?"

She frowned, not recognizing the face of her attacker, but released her grip while still kept her blade poised for attack. "You know," she twirled her blade, "you demons should do something about how I can ID you easily with you keep changing your meat suit."

Her attacker rolled her eyes, "too bad we don't have the luxury for that since you hunters keep banishing us from our meat suit."

She recognized that kind of attitude somewhere on her memories so she lowered her blade slightly, "okay which one are you I'm dealing with now?"

"It's me. Ruby."

Elaine squinted at the demon on the ground before finally helping her attacker to stand. "Nice meat suit. Who is she?"

"A college student. Why?"

"Nothing. She had quite good haircut. I need to find where she did it." They shared a chuckle as Elaine returned her blade into its usual hiding place. She glanced at the demon in front of her, "what is happening, Ruby? What are these demons planning to do? And who are you trying to hide from?"

Ruby glanced around nervously, as if expecting something to jump on them any second, "it's not safe in here."

"Fine. Let's get back to the motel then."

The demon raised her eyebrow, not expecting that answer, "you? In a motel? Really? Are you really Elaine?"

"I would stay in a proper hotel had you not insisted on living in that crappy motel." Elaine snapped at her. "Now, are you going to stand there? I thought you said it's not safe here."

When they returned to Elaine's motel room, Ruby immediately pulled out hex bags and placed them on each corners then proceeded to pour salt on the door and windows the room had. Elaine watched as her demon 'friend' tried to shelter her room against every possible creature. She went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of champagne she bought earlier on her way to this city. Here she thought she would drink it alone after she managed to get information she needed, but there was always flaw on a plan, no matter how meticulous it was. Just like the plan to prevent the Gate of Hell from being opened.

"You might not want to sit on the bed," Elaine gestured on the wood floor under the bed.

Ruby glanced down and looked at her pointedly. "A Devil's Trap under the bed? Really?"

"What? Some demons were actually stupid enough to try sleeping with me and sometimes it's a perfect distraction." Elaine poured the champagne on two tall glasses. "Want some?"

"Don't you ever get a stronger stuff?"

"Not when I need to be alert every waking moment." She watched as Ruby sat in front of her, drinking the champagne. "So? Mind telling me what actually happened now?"

"Elaine Corbett doesn't know something. Pigs might fly in the sky tomorrow."

Elaine rolled her eyes, "I'm not in the mood for joke, Ruby. I spend a week hunting down demons who had gone killing spree since the Gate of Hell opened. Some of hunters I closely knew died because of those demons. I haven't slept properly for a week. I have to follow you sleep in this crappy motel for few days already. You don't want to mess up with me."

"Like you said, those demons came out when the Gate of Hell opened. You have to excuse them, they never kill any human in earth ever since they were trapped there. And no, there is no  _big_  plan now. Not since the Winchesters killed Azazel when they confronted him in the Gate of Hell. Those demons are not under anyone's order." Ruby glanced at the woman in front of her who seemed on a deep thought. "So, any idea where the Winchesters are?" she tried to have her question asked nonchalantly but she found out that it failed immediately.

Suddenly Elaine went into deep alert and Ruby could see the suspicious feeling earlier returned to her expression gradually. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm not trying to do something to them," Ruby raised her hand in defense. "Do you know that Sam and Dean are practically public enemy number one for demons since they ganked Azazel? And I just want to make sure something."

"What?"

"Why the crossroad demon gladly make a deal with Dean for Sam's life and only gave him a year. Clearly they want Sam to be alive and use Dean's loyalty to his brother. It might be another twisted scenario of Azazel or other high-end demon."

"Like Lilith for example, you mean."

Ruby pursed her lips into thin line hearing that name. "Yes, that too."

"You do realize coming to them can put you on spotlight as well? Aren't you supposed to hide away from other demons?"

"I just want to make sure."

"Sorry, didn't know where those two are. You probably will be lucky if you can find where the next biggest omen is because that's where the Winchesters usually are."

* * *

Once she finally returned to her apartment, Elaine immediately jumped into her bed and groaned when she felt the the comfortable mattress under her, not caring the state of her bloody clothes. Her mind automatically replayed her conversation with Ruby earlier. Even Ruby couldn't give the information she needed, not that she completely trusted that demon, since she had history as one of Lilith's followers.

But still, what Ruby said earlier quite made sense, though. If the Winchesters killed Azazel who had been gathering all those demons, they could be their public enemy number one now. Adding with the fact that more hunters now knew the Winchesters was somehow involved in the night when the Devil's Gate opened, those brothers might have enemies on both sides. She reached out to grab her cellphone at the nightstand and rolled through her contacts until she reached one particular name. Should she call him now? They have been avoiding each other completely and neither of them found any necessary reason to contact each other. Not after that night. But this was considered as emergency, right?

So should she?

Just when she was about to make up her mind, her phone rang loudly that it scared her momentarily. She glanced down at her phone, curious on who might call on her private line. Only handful of people knew this number and… a relieved smile crept into her face as she recognized the number.

"Why hello there, do you miss me already?" A frown appeared on her face as she listened more to her caller. She glanced at the photo frame on her night stand when she finally decided to give in with a hint of smile returned. "Of course, how could I refuse?"

She sighed when the call was over, at least he sounded fine and the other seemed to be okay as well, then reached out to take the frame. Two years and she finally could meet him again. They could make a fresh start again, erasing what happened that night. Suddenly she didn't feel tired anymore and jumped out of her bed to visit her closet. Her eyes twinkled with regained energy as she walked through her clothes collection. If they were going to see each other again, then she needed to look the best.

Tomorrow she would feel again.

* * *

"Sam, get your ass over here and start packing!"

Sam peeked out from their bathroom, looking confused with toothbrush still on his mouth, watching Dean hurriedly packed his belongings. Ever since Bobby vehemently decided to call another informant who was supposed to be able to help them especially since she was the one who came up with the crap on Gate of Hell, Dean had been acting  _very_  weird. This was weirder than watching his brothers having sex with any women he could find since he made his deal. This was definitely weirder than anything Dean had done before.

Dean didn't want to meet a woman... that's a first.

"Are we going to run away from this city just because you don't want to meet with the informant Bobby called?"

"No, we're not running away!" Dean protested, looking insulted that Sam thought he would leave the case just because he didn't want to meet  _her_ , "we need to change our motel and get away before she came here!"

Not that he wasn't concerned on what kind of woman could possibly make Dean run on his tail, but this was too funny to let it pass. "So let me get this straight,  _you_  are afraid of this informant woman that you want to change motel to avoid her? What happened if Bobby decides to bring her to us? Are you going to hide in my back, Dean?" Sam mock-pouted at him, earning him a pillow smack from his brother.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Dean said sarcastically. "You don't know this woman, Sam. She's really dangerous and tricky. Hell, she could make Meg's manipulation look very childish and you don't want to get yourself into this one, Sam. Trust me. Now go pack your things! I want us out before−"

The door to their motel room opened suddenly. "Suddenly in the middle of the night, I witness the aftermath of opening the Devil's Gate and I just know who might be responsible for that."

Sam stared at the woman leaning on the door, plastered with a smirk on her face. She was beautiful. Not the really, really beautiful kind of thing that you thought you only saw in a fiction life. But she was definitely beautiful and more importantly, Dean's actual kind of woman. She dressed in halter neck knee-length grey dress and her arms were armed with ammunition on one arm and a knife on the other. A belt pack was secured on her waist, probably for ammunition storage as well. She had red haired wavy shoulder-length hair.  _This_  was the woman Dean tried to avoid? Of all the descriptions Dean had been throwing at him, he half expected a cackling old woman dressed as hippies and carried whips around.

"Hi, Sweetie." She said with a seductive voice.

Dean turned and faked a smile at her, "Bobby's on the next room, get out."

"Aw," she walked inside, pouting slightly at Dean who immediately stiffened at her close proximity, "I'm hurt. Miss me?" Sam could only gape when the woman leaned up to peck a kiss on Dean's lips who responded to the kiss automatically.

"Not a chance."

The woman smirked and patted Dean's cheek, "don't play hard to get, sweetie. That's my job." She looked around the motel room, "another night at motel again? I told you it would be hazardous for your sanity in the future," before she noticed Sam's presence on the room and her smirk was displayed again. "So…" she put her hand gently on Sam's chest and leaned at him, " _this_  is the infamous Sam Winchester. Hello, darling," she purred, causing Sam to be flustered in response.

"Stop it."

The woman turned her head slightly to stare at Dean with her hand still on Sam's chest, "why, sweetie? Are you jealous?"

"Alright, you idjits, stop playing around." Bobby walked in the room and rolled his eyes when he saw what the woman was doing, "Dean, Elaine, be nice."

"But Bobby," she said, slightly pouted at him, "I'm always nice." Still she removed herself from Sam who immediately breathed in relief, as if he had been holding his for a while. The woman, seemed to be called Elaine, walked over to Bobby and grabbed the papers Bobby held earlier and read the descriptions on what they had found out.

"Any idea?" Bobby asked.

"Few, most of which I need to see it on my own first. Is there any other case similar to this before the Devil's Gate opened?"

"Wait," Sam spoke out, "you know about Devil's Gate?"

Elaine turned to face him and smirked, again. "Oh darling,  _everyone_ knows about what happened with Devil's Gate and I was the one who helped Bobby with research. But then again, sweetie," she then turned back to the older Winchester, "if you really want to catch my attention, you just need to call me. No need to open the Gate of Hell or even make a deal with crossroads demon."

Before any of them could react, Dean grabbed her shoulder and pushed her against the wall, "how did you know about it?!" he demanded.

"Easy, sweetie. I know how desperate you are to have me in this position," Elaine leaned and tapped his chin lightly, causing him to roll his eyes, "but I think you forgot who I usually deal with. It was the deal of the century I heard," she added when Dean reluctantly released her, "how many time did you have left?"

"Not your damn business, Corbett."

"A year." Sam answered instead, causing Dean to glare at him, but he transfixed his gaze to the woman in front of him. Her posture became more rigid and alert from his answer. Her smirk fell out from her expression as she frowned instead. He could swear there was a glint of regret on her eyes when he answered it, "do you know how to get him out of his deal?"

"Usually, I do, but−"

"I don't want to get out of the deal." Dean cut off their conversation. The last thing he wanted to happen was Elaine Corbett would save his life. He would rather be dead by hellhound thousands time than owing her a favor. "Can we move on to the case?"

Sam was about to argue when Elaine cut him first. "Why so eager, sweetie?"

"The sooner we can finish this case, the sooner you can get out from my hair," and without giving her a chance to speak out again, Dean turned to the silent old man who seemed to be amused on their interaction, "Bobby, got anything new?"

Bobby rolled his eyes, "idjit," he muttered under his breath before nodding to Elaine.

"Apparently someone just bashed a woman's head against car window this morning," she looked up from the notes, "a scorned woman? Watch out, sweetie, one of you past fling might do that to you," she grinned when Dean scowled at her.

"Beats the hell out of me. Come on, let's go the crime scene. Elaine, you come with me," he added before she could make another scene. She might be a damn good informant, better than him in some senses, but gave her Dean Winchester and they would bicker like an old couple until the end of time.

Elaine pouted  _again_ , "Oh you're so not fun, Bobby."

Yeah, he could feel headache coming over. Somehow he started to regret calling her in, if this was how the day would pass. Bobby threw a warning look to Dean who was happy to retort in response as always. It was enough that she couldn't stop flirting and teasing everyone she met, he didn't need Dean to go ballistic towards her. Bobby glanced at Sam who seemed to still be confused at their exchange.

Nah, he would let Dean or Elaine explained their weird relationship to Sam. He ain't gonna participate on this mess.

* * *

Dean scoffed when they went to the parking lot. Of course she would choose that car, instead of other more beautiful cars. She really was attracting attention wherever she went because of that damn car. He remembered how many trouble he got in because  _everyone_  recognized her car, including demons and monsters. Yet she laughed it off when he brought it up in anger and instead ridiculed his weak reaction.

"Remember this car, sweetie?" Elaine called out as she leaned on her car's hood, smirking slightly, "we did have such wonderful memories in here," she drawled out.

Dean rolled his eyes as he loaded checked his supply on Impala's trunk, "Your stupid pink car makes the vampires knew where we are and attacked us in the middle of the night. And then there's another time with werewolf. Then demons also."

"That's not the one I was thinking of."

"That's the one I always remember when I see your damn car."

"See? You're playing hard to get again."

Not wanting another twisted flirting between those two, Bobby grabbed Elaine's jacket without a word and dragged her to his car. He roughly pushed her inside his car but apparently he was not fast enough because she managed to twist her body slightly and winked then blew a kiss at Dean. Elaine grinned at Bobby who merely pushed her inside again. She looked at Dean who growled at his younger brother, clearly didn't want to answer whatever Sam asked him. Mentally counted until three, her grin widened when Dean tried to subtly glance at her. He immediately scowled when he realized she was waiting for him to do that.

Bobby glanced at the woman next to him who played around with her smartphone. He was actually quite surprised on how adamant Dean was to not call her in yesterday and when he did, Dean stormed out of the house angrily. With how he saw those two together last time in Connecticut, he never thought Deann would refuse a chance to meet her again. He frowned while remembering the encounters between those two. There was something slightly off between them and he didn't realize it earlier. Did something happen between Connecticut and now?

"Having flashback moment, old man?"

"Yeah, wishing the time when you idjits don't cause me headache," he snapped back.

Elaine grinned at him, "aw, I miss you too, Bobby."

But now was not the time to grill her up for that. "You got something?"

"Not from other hunters. I think we should make a campaign or something to make all demons and monsters to have cellphone. It's bloody difficult to contact them whenever we want," she complained. "You got nothing from lore books?"

"Those are completely useless unless we get more information."

Instead of following the Winchesters to investigate the crime scene, they went straight to the cops who were positioned nearby. Elaine glanced and snickered when she saw Bobby emerged in suit and his hair gelled back. Honestly, she couldn't believe everyone just accepted it when he introduced himself as part of law officers. In her opinion, he more likely looked like a salesman instead of FBI or so. Maybe civilians were dumber and clueless than she thought they would be.

Bobby glared at her, as if knowing what she was thinking. "Get your ass here, Corbett."

"Yes, sir," she mock saluted him, receiving another intense glare, before following him to question the cops and suspects. Once they were closer to the cops, her grin vanished and was replaced by indifferent expression. It's time to get very serious and find out whatever happened to this town.

Bobby was the first to reach the cops and offered them his name card, "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I'm Avery Smith and this is my assistant, Evelyn Johnson. We're attorney from the DA office."

One of the cop accepted Bobby's name card offer. "Oh, that was quick." He glanced at the name card before shaking Bobby's hand, "I'm Officer Greg, acting sheriff for today. Is there anything we can help you with?"

Bobby nodded in appreciation, "I presume you already apprehend the suspect?"

Officer Greg motioned his head towards one of the police car. They could see glimpse of a blonde haired woman on the back of that car. "Yeah, we just finished warping up on the scene but she's on that car, ready to be transferred to the station. Might be easier to come with us if you want to talk with her."

"Thank you. Did you find anything unusual on the crime scene, Officer?" Elaine spoke out, her notebook was ready on her hand, "even the slightest change would be an immense help for us."

"Not that we know of," Officer Greg shrugged his shoulder. "Witnesses claimed that she suddenly charged towards the victim and demanded to have her shoes. Mental that one, I can say. All these big sales," he gestured to the posters plastered on each shop's window, announcing seasonal sale, "makes women go crazy, you know. Can't say I'm not surprised this might happen one day."

Elaine fought the urge to roll her eyes. Typical men. Just because women loved spending time on shopping to make sure that they had the best deal of everything, men suddenly assumed that they would grow crazy over it. "I see. Thank you for your input, Officer. Shall we move on to the station then, Sir?" She glanced towards Bobby who nodded in response.

* * *

Sam watched as his brother had his annoyed face during their drive to the crime scene. There must be something happened between those two that made Dean acted like a bitch now. Of all things he had done since five days ago, Sam would have thought Dean would jump on her instead of bickering and snapping like that. His brother had made it clear that he would have sex with every woman he could find during their journey before his time was up. So why did he choose to run on his tail from this woman? That Elaine was definitely Dean's type of woman. Sexy, flirty, and knows how to handle weapon. So why didn't he?

Did they have some history that made Dean acted that way? Did Elaine do something that causes his brother wanting to avoid her? But then again, this was Dean they were talking about. If anyone could hurt their significant other, it would be Dean all over. Though that woman seemed not to have any quarrel against Dean. She seemed to be happy and grateful to see Dean kicking and alive. So what was the problem actually?

"Don't think I don't notice you staring at me openly, Sammy."

Sam blinked then averted his gaze as subtle as he could.

"Yeah, I can see that too. I'm not blind." Dean glanced at his brother then scoffed, "stop giving me your bitch face, bitch."

"Jerk." Sam responded automatically, which caused him to realize something. That was what Dean did when that woman kissed him. He responded to her kiss automatically, as if it was a normal greeting between them. Unable to contain his frustration and confusion, Sam turned to his brother, "so what's the deal with Elaine?"

"What do you mean what's the deal? There is no deal or anything with that woman, okay."

"Yeah," Sam scoffed, "you just happen to kiss someone you've been trying to avoid since yesterday."

"Hey, I ain't kissed her! She kissed me, okay? Get that fact straight on your mind."

Sam huffed out in annoyance that his brother didn't budge to tell him about that woman. It was not that he liked that woman or something. In fact he was too terrified when he thought she made a move on him earlier. She was too forward for his taste. No, he didn't want to know about her for that reason. He was immensely curious about Dean. Dean never ran away from any woman, especially not a beautiful woman like Elaine.

Then a thought hit him. Was Dean afraid to get serious with Elaine? That could be one of the reasons for his weird reaction. No, if he thought about it more, it seemed to be the only explanation and it made sense. Dean never had a relationship, not that he knew of. It was always one night stand or passing through idle time for Dean. Elaine was different than the woman Dean always slept with. She involved herself in supernatural world, being a hunter slash informant. She knew what Dean did and the consequence and Dean couldn't find a reason to avoid being serious with her.

Oh great, now he's started analyzing his brother's probably non-existent love life. It was remarkable how dying could change a person and people around them. Sam found himself not wanting to leave Dean out of his sight and always wondered what would happen if they didn't get dragged into this world. Or else, he would drown himself in numerous books to find how to get Dean out of his deal, which by the way didn't seem to produce any positive result.

"Are you coming, Sasquatch?"

Sam blinked again, realizing that they already arrived at the crime scene and Dean parked Impala one block away since the whole street in front of the store were filled with cops and audiences.

"See? I told you that woman is not a good business around here."

"I'm not thinking about her, Dean." Sam rolled his eyes, "I think you're the one who can't stop mentioning her."

Dean opened his mouth to retort back but somehow didn't have any idea what to say, so he settled on scoffing and went out from the Impala and straight into the store without saying anything. Sam let out an amused snort seeing his brother. Yeah, having Elaine around seemed to bring a side of Dean he never knew before. To his horror, he remembered what he witnessed yesterday when he got call from Bobby. Sam groaned, he really needed to control his imagination. There was no need for him to keep remembering  _that_  scene. He shivered in disgust, where was amnesia maker when you needed one?

Sam went out from Impala and noticed Bobby and Elaine were standing not far from him, talking with one of the officers. For someone who was hell bent on flirting few moments ago, Elaine seemed to be a damn good actress because he couldn't find the trace of that flirty woman on the red haired woman taking notes beside Bobby. He watched as she said something to the officer before snapping shut her note and nodded to Bobby. Had he not met her earlier, he would have thought she was the real FBI or whatever agent they were pulling now and Bobby was in trouble getting caught on faking ID. Sam quickly turned his head slightly and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly when he caught her noticing his presence on the other side of the road and winked plus blew a kiss at him. Yeah, he started to get why Dean wanted to avoid her. She could make him uncomfortable just by blowing a kiss at him.

He waited on the outside, watching the rest of the officers taking forensic evidences while the others, followed by Bobby and Elaine, went somewhere else. Maybe they were going to let those two talked with the suspect. He took out his EMF detector and walked around the shop and street but he couldn't find any peak activity. Even sulfur check-up came out negative. If this wasn't a ghost nor demon attack, then what it could possibly be? He skimmed through the crowds, trying to find anything remotely unusual. After convincing himself that his preliminary check didn't give him any needed result and that he might need to wait until Bobby and Elaine returned, Sam went inside the store. He looked around for Dean, hoping that his brother might get better news than no sulfur and EMF result.

Instead he found Dean chatting up with a witness, not in purpose to extract any information.

"What happened outside makes you realize how fragile life really is. You got to make every second count."

Yap, no useful information would come up from this 'interrogation', if he could call it that. Sam cleared his throat when he was near Dean and the witness.

"Excuse me a minute, would you?" Dean spoke to the witness who shrugged and left. He waited until the witness left them for few good steps before turning to his brother.

"Dean, what are you doing?"

"I'm comforting the bereaved. What are you doing?"

Sam made a face at him, "workin'. Dead body, possible demon attack─ that kind of stuff," he said with his reprimanding voice.

Dean coughed pathetically, "Sam, I'm sorry. It's just, I don't have much time left and… got to make every second count," which always worked to get Sam felt guilty and this time was no different.

Sam sighed and chastened, "Yeah, right. All right. Sorry."

"Apology accepted," Dean said brightly, happy to know this sentence always got his brother to let him do whatever he wanted. He was about to follow the witness he talked earlier when he noticed another woman facing outside. So he walked towards her while making sure his face expression changed into a compassionate one, causing Sam to sigh exasperatedly. "Hello there, miss. Are you alright?" Dean touched her shoulder tenderly. He walked another step to face the woman and was in the middle of tilting her head upward so he could stare at her face properly when he realized who was in front of him. "What the hell, Corbett!?" Dean jumped away from her, as if she was burning hot, "would you stop playing around? I'm doing my job in here!"

"What job? I thought you're here to seduce every woman in store, sweetie." Elaine smirked when the older Winchester groaned in exasperation and stalked away from her. "Is that how you seduce woman now?" she called out, amused when he threw his hand up in anger.

Sam smirked at him, "yeah, you  _don't_  have a deal with her," he made a quoted expression with his hand.

"Shut up." Dean averted his gaze away when he saw Bobby entered the store in a suit. His hair was slicked back. "Whoa," he whistled, looking impressed, "Looking spiffy, Bobby. What were you, a g-man?"

"Attorney for the D.A.'s office. We just spoke to the suspect."

"More like he berated her for killing a woman just because she really wanted those shoes and then threw a glass of holy water on her." Elaine piped in, grinning when Bobby threw her a pointed look. "What? That was what happened."

"And you didn't think on finding an excuse for me?"

"I told them you have this uncontrollable desire to spill water on everyone! Wasn't that enough?"

"Yeah, and they look at me as if I'm crazy."

"So you got nothing? It's some random whack job, then?" Dean asked.

Bobby sighed, "if it had been an isolated incident, maybe, but first the family, and now this? I believe in a lot of things. Coincidence ain't one of them." He turned to the still grinning Elaine, "you got something?"

"Well, I managed to remove few possibilities, but I don't have enough information on that and my informants seemed to bail on me. They might be joining the killing spree as we speak." She then turned to the siblings, "did you guys find anything in store?"

"No sulfur, nothing." Sam answered.

Dean glanced up, noticing something on the corner of the wall, "Well, maybe something," he nodded towards the security camera faced towards the shoe shelves. "See?" He turned to Sam and Elaine, smirking, "I'm working."

* * *

Elaine paced around the room, muttering something while she played around with her smartphone. She never saw anything like the one they saw in the security camera. A type of demon who could make a human to kill someone for something. If this was how the demon army was supposed to be, she couldn't help but shudder to think how many of those walked around the earth and creating havoc right now. She threw her smartphone in annoyance; this town was too small that the internet was not working properly. Thankfully she was bored few months ago and decided to archive her information collection digitally so she could access it easily, with password protected of course. Some of these things could cost millions to obtain it and she wouldn't let anyone else obtain it easily.

She quickly browsed through her catalogs, typing all kind of keywords she could think of. Unfortunately she was too lazy to upgrade her system with better organization, which cost her more time to search through the whole catalogs on every keyword. She really needed to upgrade this next time she had spare time. Her eyes caught on a passage she briefly translated from the same book containing about Gate of Hell. She frowned reading the crude translation and even though it had nothing to do with the case they were on…. Elaine glanced towards Bobby who was busy burying his face on a book. Dean went out, canvassing where the red haired man would be from his mug shot, while Sam went out to do research on who that man might be. She glanced back to the passage and hesitant to close it. But in the end, she marked the passage and look at it more deeply when this case was done.

"Found him!" Dean stormed inside the room, looking relieved. "He would be on this bar every night so let's gank him there."

Bobby shrugged, "might as well do that. Found anything useful about our guy, Elaine?"

"Unfortunately we don't have class on Demon 101 here but I highly suspect he is one of the seven deadly sins."

"Say what?"

Elaine jerked her head towards her laptop, motioning them to walk over to her. "This is one of the passages I found about the seven deadly sins, saying that they belonged in demon class, instead of separate entities. They don't say how those things could infect human but it kind of fit. That man touched our suspect and somehow she felt greedy and wanted those shoes so she killed our victim for that."

"Any idea how to kill them?"

"None. I suspect it should be the same as other demons, but they are more powerful and cleverer than any other demons we have encountered."

"Good. We can get prepared for that." Dean cracked his fingers then turned to the young informant in front of him. "Now you can leave this on us, princess, and get away. Far, far away if possible."

Bobby rolled his eyes. Couldn't they just give in to their sexual tension and make out already? It was getting annoying and tiring already. "We might still need her, Dean."

"Oh yeah? It was only, what, two deadly sins and there are three of us. I don't think we need more people on the party."

"─who if you remember correctly, can make a human dead from starvation and another killed someone just from a touch."

"Yes sweetie, I know you're very eager to show off, but I think there's a limit on how stupid you should be, right?" Elaine stood up and patted his cheek. She smirked when Dean caught her hand and threw it away from his face. "After all, your only weapon are, what, salt gun, holy water, and exorcism? I hardly think it will be very effective, don't you think?"

"Yeah? What do you got then?" Dean snarled at her, refusing to be reprimanded and lectured by her.

"Something that can kill demon instantly. They said it could kill hellhound as well. Interested?" she added when she noticed his expression straightened up when hearing the word hellhound, "You can have it, of course," she walked towards him, leaving only few inches between them, and touched his chest to whisper, "with the right price."

That was the first time she could see a hint of the old Dean. She didn't like this. She didn't want to have to resort to this just to have him reacted other than defensive remark. But she wanted to see him again, the Dean she fell in love years ago, the one that somehow disappeared after that night. Now that he only had one year to live... Her pupils slightly dilated and her breath hitched when she noticed he was giving her the intense look and she couldn't help but drawn to his green eyes again. She remembered how they once argued on whose had better green colored eyes until they literally less than a centimeter apart from the mirror to capture their eyes. It seemed forever since she could stare at his eyes this close again and noticed little freckles on his face she memorized perfectly.

Dean found himself unable to tear his gaze away from her bright green eyes. Surges of emotions rushed into him as he remembered the last time they were this close. His eyes flickered down to her parted lips before returned to her eyes and back to her lips. All those efforts to not contact her, all those nights spent staring at her number, regretting of what he said that night, and all those women he chose instead of her. They seemed hopeless and foolish for him, now that he only had one year to live. He could feel his heart beating erratically and her hand on his chest curled slightly when he finally gave in and leaned down. Their lips were about to touch when─

"─are you idjits really going to make out  _now_?"

Dean's eyes widened as he realized what they were about to do and he jumped back few feet away from her and stared at her as if she was a witch who tried to seduce him.

"Bobby," Elaine whined, "you destroy a good moment here!"

"It's not a good moment!"

Elaine raised her right eyebrow, "I don't see you complaining few seconds ago, sweetie." She watched amusedly as Dean opened his mouth and tried to retort back but was unable to do so and instead he stalked out of the room, causing her to giggle. At least his reaction whenever she teased him was still the same and that made her eased. Then she noticed Bobby still stared at her, "what? He's so easy to tease."

Bobby rolled his eyes and followed Dean outside only to holler back at her, "Elaine, are you coming or not?!"

"Coming, old man!" She was about to follow him when something over the window caught her attention. Elaine frowned as she walked closer to the window, trying to get a better view to see if that was what she thought. Her eyes flickered, scanning on the view in front of her. The figure had disappeared, probably realized that she noticed it.

"Elaine!"

Elaine shook her head. This was not the time to get distracted. If the seven deadly sins were as powerful as the book made them out to be, then they couldn't afford other distraction on this case. She locked down her laptop and stored it in her personal safe before following Bobby and Dean loading their weapons outside. "I still don't agree that we should storm to the bar right away."

"Why? Are you scared?" Dean smirked at her, finally got a chance to ridicule her.

"Sorry, sweetie. Not even the devil himself will scare me." She replied, "but, I don't like barging into a bar without enough information about what we're dealing with. That is not my style."

"Yeah, too bad it's  _my_  case and I'm the one who figured out where the guy is. So we go  _my_  way." Dean said firmly as he closed down the trunk on Bobby's car.

"Hm," she made an effort to lick her lips loudly, "I love it when you take control."

Dean smirked at her, "Yeah, I know you do." He threw the key towards Bobby, "come on, let's go."

She watched as those two went inside Bobby's old car and then back to the side of the motel room she just walked out. Somehow she felt something bad would come out of this. "Wait," she bent down to look at them properly, "I'm going to grab my laptop."

* * *

It was a long tedious wait in the cramp small car of Bobby in front of the bar and still there was no sign of the red haired man they were looking for. This was part of the reason why she rarely hit the road unless of an emergency situation. Elaine was slightly grateful that she thought on bringing her laptop. At least she could still search for some proofs that they were really dealing with seven deadly sins and how they operated. She glanced at her phone again, still no response from her demon informants. This was getting ridiculous; did she have to resort to summoning ritual again every time something big had happened?

"Boyfriend doesn't call back?"

Elaine looked up from her laptop to see Dean staring at her through the rear mirror. "Why? Jealous?" she asked, drawling.

"Not really. You're never one to be in a proper relationship."

"And so do you."

It felt wrong that he felt relieved when she still never had a proper boyfriend, especially when he remembered what happened that night two years ago. When Bobby refused not to call her for help, all he could think of was how awkward it would be between them. Especially when neither Bobby nor Sam knew what actually happened. Oh how wrong he was. She was still the annoying fake hunter who always knew how to push his button and that angered him. He expected her to be cold at him or at least screamed at him for what happened that night. But no, she acted as if there was nothing happened two years ago and he didn't like it. Dean needed an excuse to keep pushing her away and she took away his ammunition.

He really wanted to finish this case as quick as possible, so that he couldn't meet her anymore. He sprouted nonsense to Sam when he wondered what made Dean repeatedly refused to call her, just so neither of them got close to each other. Because if they got on together, it would make him unable to accept his fate and it was hard enough with Sam breathing down his neck, demanding to let him find a way to save Dean. If she entered the picture, Sam wouldn't be able to stay away from her, not when she might tell him a way to save Dean. Which was what she exactly did once she came to their motel room.

Dean tightened his grip on the dashboard as his doubts started to spread on his mind. Damn it, one visit from her and she almost made him changed his mind. This was why he didn't want Bobby to call her but he couldn't explain to the old man why without telling about that night. He didn't realize that Elaine didn't return her attention to her laptop, but watched his reaction closely through the rear mirror instead. She noticed how his expression flattered after their brief conversation. He seemed to make a habit of that today. Whenever they talked, he always had this pained expression afterwards. She knew he thought no one noticed it, but she did. She always did and he always hated it. Elaine raised her hand and was about to touch his shoulder when Bobby grunted and woke up from his slumber.

"What time is it?" he grumbled.

"Seven past midnight."

Bobby looked around before settling down on the bar entrance in front of them. "You sure it's the place?"

"No, but I spend all day canvassing this stupid down with this man's stupid mug, and supposedly, he drinks at this stupid bar."

"You both know that we can just plant cameras on the bar and watch everything on a better place, for example somewhere with more space than this car?"

Dean was about to retort back when someone pounded on the car roof loudly, causing them to jump in surprise, which turned out to be Sam laughing at their discomfort. He opened the door and then moved Dean's seat forward so he could slip inside.

"That's not funny!"

"Yeah," Sam laughed it off, "uh, hey, Elaine…" he didn't notice the woman next to him when he came in, "uh, all right, um, get this─ so John Doe's name is Walter Rosen. He's from Oak Park, just west of Chicago. Went missing about a week ago."

"─which is when the Gate of Hell opened," Elaine noted, "well, this fit on what I predict earlier."

Sam looked at three of them in confused, "uh, you predict what?"

"That Walter Rosen is possessed by one of the seven deadly sins, all of them had never been heard before the Gate opened."

"So they can just walks up to someone, touch them, and they go stark raving psycho?"

"Those demons that got out of the gate─ they're gonna do all kinds of things we haven't seen." Bobby said with a sigh, "found something more?"

"Nothing worth repeating since no one has ever exactly met them. I really wish Samuel Colt kept a decent diary or something about this. Did he really think no one would ever break the Gate apart?"

"Well, he's  _the_  Samuel Colt. He─" Dean stopped when he noticed a car parked nearby bar entrance and their red haired man came out from it. He patted Bobby's shoulder and jerked his head towards the entrance, "Guys."

Suddenly Elaine's phone rang out, causing them to jump in surprise. Dean was about to snarl a comment when she raised her finger to stop him and answered the phone. "Finally! You do realize that phone is used for communicating?" She huffed at whatever her caller told her. "Tell me everything you know about seven deadly sins and  _don't_  try to evade this."

"All right," Dean decided to ignore her, knowing she was in the middle of interrogating her informant, "show time."

"Wait a minute," Bobby put a hand on Dean's chest and pushed him back.

"What?"

Bobby heaved a frustrated sigh, "what did I just say? We don't know what to expect out of this guy except that he's a seven deadly sin. We should tail him until we know for sure."

"Oh, so he kills someone and we just sit here with our junk in our hands?"

"We're no good dead! And we're not gonna make a move until we know what the score is."

It was Sam who noticed another call pulled up next to their target's car and from there, came out two hunters they met yesterday. "Uh Bobby, I don't think that's an option," he nodded towards the newest addition to parking lot. Bobby and Dean followed his line of vision and watched as Tamara and Isaac headed towards the bar, obviously tailing that man the whole day.

"Damn it!"

Elaine, who had been busy arguing over the phone earlier, froze when she also noticed two hunters went inside the bar. She hurriedly talked to the person on the other line before shutting down the call. "Bobby, we need to get inside NOW!"

"Why? What did you find out?"

"He's one of the seven deadly sins, alright. But the thing we don't know earlier is that─ they never travelled alone."

"Meaning?"

"Tamara and Isaac had just walked into a bar full of demons."

"Damn it!"

Bobby immediately turned on the engine and drove his car right through the bar entrance. To their horror, Elaine's predicament was correct. Everyone, aside from Tamara and Isaac who was writhing on the floor, were demons. They quickly scattered out of the car, splashing holy waters to the nearest demon they could. Sam grabbed Tamara when the demons jumped away from her due to holy water. She screamed and struggled, not wanting to leave her husband alone, but they both knew there was nothing they could do. Isaac was dead the moment he stop writhing on the floor. Elaine threw another flask of holy water when the demons tried to attack them again, protecting Sam so he could get Tamara and himself safely in the car.

"Dean, come on!"

Elaine turned to see Dean was still fighting the red haired man. She watched as he opened the trunk which had Devil's Trap inscribed and threw another flask of holy water at the red haired man but it was empty. "Dean!" Elaine threw away her empty flask and took out her blade to slash at the demons as warning. They immediately stepped away when one of them received cut and noticed that her blade was not normal one. Elaine turned her attention to Dean who tried to overpower the red haired man. She went behind their target and hit his head with the blunt side of her blade. Dean looked at her in surprised before he grabbed their target and pulled him into the trunk, while Elaine made sure that the other demons didn't try to retrieve their comrade.

"Dean, Elaine!"

Dean grabbed Elaine who was ready to attack the demons with her blade and pulled her into the front seat of the car. "Go, go, go, go, go, go!" Once Bobby was sure both of them were secured in the seat, he pushed on the gas pedal and took them away from the bar. That was when Dean realized that he had Elaine on his lap, one of his hand rested on her waist, and she had her hand around his neck, both of them breathing hard from the fight and adrenaline. He watched her closely as both of them started to calm down and she finally realized their current position. None of them said anything as they kept their eyes trained on each other, trying to search what the other was thinking. Elaine slowly slipped her hand away from his neck, moved it down to his chest, and was about to let her hand fall to her side when his other hand shot up and forced hers to stay on his chest. She unconsciously let her eyes flickered down to his lips before returning back to his eyes and was about to lean forward when the car pulled to stop suddenly.

Elaine immediately tore away from his lap and exited the car then ventured to the back of the car. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. This was not the best time to get distracted. She glanced up to see Sam tried to take Tamara back inside their house. Then she pulled out her blade and immediately pressed it on their target's throat when she opened the trunk. "Don't even think of running away. You know what this blade is," she hissed, before allowing Dean and Bobby to take the guy away from the trunk, not without making sure that their target still saw her blade.

She didn't dare to look at Dean on their way inside even after they secured the red haired man under Devil's Trap and strapped in a chair.

* * *

Elaine walked circling the Devil's Trap as she twirled her blade. Her eyes trained at the demon trapped inside the circle who merely smirked at her, but she knew he gazed at her blade warily and caused her to smirk back. Ever since she obtained this blade, she treasured it immediately but had no qualms on flaunting it against all demons she hunted or demons who thought they could hassle her for free information. She glanced to next room where the boys were trying to calm Tamara and stopped her from returning to the bar. She tried not to flinch when Dean volunteered himself to go with Tamara but apparently she failed because the demon laughed.

"Anything funny,  _Envy_?"

Envy smirked, "oh good, you know who we are. Just like we know who you are."

"I know. I've been informed that I'm quite famous in your world."

"Not for your occupation, I'm afraid. There have been whispers about you." Envy licked his lips as he trailed his eyes from her head down to her toes. "And I can't tell you how grateful we are when you─" he stopped when the tip of her blade touched his throat slightly. The demon glared at her, "remove that blade from me."

"Or what? Are you going to kill me?" Elaine mock pouted at him, "you're under Devil's Trap and if you hear whispers about me, you know how fast I am with my blade. So," she removed her blade away from his throat and started circling him again, "what is your big plan?"

Envy merely laughed at her but hissed when he was splashed holy water.

"Answer her!"

Elaine turned her head, slightly in surprise to find four of them walked inside the room. She glanced to Tamara who tried to control her anger and then noticed that it was Dean who threw the holy water. He stepped forward, glaring at the snickering demon. "What do  _you_  want?" Then he threw another flask of holy water, causing the demon to scream in pain.

"Argh! We already have what we want!"

"What's that?"

"We're out. We're free." He sneered at them, especially the Winchesters who clearly had guilty expression on their face. "Thanks to you, my kind is everywhere. I am legion, for we are many. So me, I'm just celebrating. Having a little fun."

"Fun?"

"Yeah. Fun." Envy laughed again, "you see, some people crochet. Others golf. Me? I like to see people's insides… on their outside."

Tamara growled, "I'm gonna put you down like a dog."

"Please," he laughed again, "you really think you're better than me."

"Well we're hunter and we hunt you down. That shows that we're the predator," Elaine bent down and glared at him, "and you're the little crock coach."

His laugh died down as he leaned forward and grinned maniacally, "oh we're going to have so much fun on breaking you." He let out a scream when Elaine slashed his arm with her blade. The others could see something crackling and swish of demonic aura around the wound she inflicted. "You bitch!" He glared at Elaine who merely sneered back at him, then turned his attention to the other hunters, "which one of you can cast the first stone, huh? What about you, Dean?" He glanced to Dean, "you're practically a walking billboard of gluttony and lust. Or maybe you, sweet Elaine," he turned his attention back to Elaine, "full of envy, pride, and lust. And Tamara!" He finally rested his eyes on the newly widowed, "All that wrath. Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk. It's the reason you and Isaac become hunters in the first place, isn't it? It's so much easier to drink in rage than to face what really happened all those years ago."

Elaine quickly stopped Tamara whose face twisted in anger and was about to lung at the laughing demon.

"My point, exactly!" Envy exclaimed, "and you call us sins. We're not sins, man. We are natural human instinct. And you can repress and deny us all you want, but the truth is, you are just animals. Horny… greedy… hungry… violent animals. And you know what? You'll be slaughtered like animals, too. The others─ they're coming for me."

"Maybe." Dean answered, "but they're not gonna find you… 'cause you'll be in hell." He walked away from the room, "someone sends this clown packing."

Elaine watched as Tamara began to exorcise the demon and left the room, joining the boys. She gripped her blade tightly. Somehow she felt her relaxed life as informant would be soon finished and she had to hit the road all the time. If this was one tiny example on what the demons from Gate of Hell would be, she shuddered to think what could be worse than those demons. She took a deep breath and walked over the boys who were discussing their plan in urgent whispers. "I think he was right. They would come for us."

"You guys, why don't you take Tamara and head for the hills? I'll stay back, slow them down, buy you a little time."

Elaine rolled her eyes, "no offense, sweetie, but I don't think you can slow them down for a second by yourself."

Dean turned at her and glared, "there are six of them! We're outmanned, we're outgunned. We'll be dead by dawn."

It was Sam who disagreed immediately with his comment. "Look, if we're going down, we're going down together, okay?" He glanced to the blade on Elaine's hand, remembering how the demons in bar seemed to be afraid of that and what happened to the demon on the other room. "Uh, Elaine. What's the deal with the blade? When you cut the demons earlier, there were some crackling noises around the wound."

She twirled her blade before putting it down on the table, "that, darling, is the blade who can kill demon."

"And how you managed to get that?" Bobby asked.

"Bobby, I can't believe you forgot who my other clients are," she pouted but sighed when Bobby kept staring at her, demanding her to answer it, "one of my demon clients needed my help to, ah, get promotion and he gave this as his payment."

"Wait, client?" Sam looked at her in confusion, " _demon_  client?"

"You see, darling," Elaine stepped closer to the younger Winchester who stiffened and stared at her nervously, "I don't like dealing with one side of the story. I think it's better to have contacts on every possible creature we have in this word, not excluding demon," she patted his cheek, "I hate not knowing  _everything_."

"So─ so you just deal with hunters, demons, werewolves, vampires, and such, and they were okay with that?"

"Well, what they don't know won't hurt them," she put her finger on his lips and smirked, "shush. It'll be our little secret, okay darling?" When she saw him hesitantly nodded, Elaine removed her finger from his lips and walked back to the table, "so, what do we get?" Before any of them could answer, Envy let out his final scream and Tamara entered the room. "Did he make it?"

"No," she said coldly and walked towards her weapon supply cabinet.

Elaine leaned on the doorway as she watched Dean seated on the floor nearby her, filling in ammunition for his shotgun and Sam seated in front of Dean, filling in holy water on his flask. It had been two hours since they rescued Tamara from the bar and there was still no sign of the other demons. They have redecorated the house for extra protections. Dean filled one of the bath tubs with holy water and Sam painted another Devil's Trap on one of the room. She glanced to find Bobby and Tamara stood nearby the entrance. They had agreed to have Bobby watched over the other woman just in case she decided to deviate from their plan.

Suddenly the broken radio player sparked to life and played scratchy tune, caused all of them to be alert. Elaine went to the nearest window and peeked outside, but she couldn't find anything unusual there. She glanced to Dean who stood next to her and he seemed to have the same conclusion with her. If they couldn't find anything outside but there were sparks on the electronic devices, then these seven deadly sins were definitely belonged to higher level compared to their usual demon encounters. She squinted her eyes, tried to find any slightest change on the shadow, while unconsciously tightened her grip on her blade.

"Tamara! Tamara!"

Elaine exchanged horror look with Dean and Sam, knowing what the demons' plan was. They knew Tamara was with them and the only disadvantage they had was her wavered determination to save her husband, regardless the consequences. She glanced warily at the entrance, catching a glimpse of the older woman cried and tried to hold her resolution not to storm outside while Bobby stood behind her. Meanwhile the demon in Isaac kept shouting for Tamara, trying to break her.

"─ I guess that's what you do, dear! Like that night those things came into our house─ came for our daughter! You just let her die, too!"

Bobby tried to reach and hold her back but it was too late because Tamara sprung the door open, breaking the salt line, and tackled the possessed Isaac down the steps. The other six demons stormed inside the house, crossing the broken salt line, and chase the remaining people inside. One fat demon noticed Bobby and tried to corner him until he run into an invisible wall. He looked up to find that he was trapped in Devil's Trap painted on the ceiling. Another demon managed to corner Dean in another hallway, who immediately fought her. Elaine managed to see two demons came inside the room where Sam was before one demon came behind her and tried to attack her. She bent down and slashed at her attacker who hissed when she noticed the blade.

"Yes, I know," Elaine smirked, "I shouldn't have this blade, yadda, yadda. You know you can't win against this," she twirled her blade once before slashing at the demon whom could only dodge away. "Oh come on, give me a fight, would you? It's boring if you only dodge."

"Fuck you, Corbett!"

Elaine made a 'tsk' sound before went down on her left knees, sweeping her right leg to tackle the demon who jumped away to avoid it. The demon lunged towards her hand, twisted it to make her dropped the blade. Elaine tried to pull her hand away but the demon's strength was stronger than her so she used her leg to kick at the demon's thigh, causing the demon to release her hand. She flexed her hand few times, tried to get blood circulated back to her hand. Her blade was switched to her left hand and she dropped her weight and crushed the demon with her knee on her stomach. "Hope you enjoy your short freedom," then she plunged the blade right into the demon's chest. The demon let out her final scream and died.

* * *

Dean glanced at one particular demon with stab wound down the hole. He at first didn't believe that such weapon existed, that there was a way to kill demon instantly without having to exorcise them. But after what Sam said about unknown woman suddenly stormed in and killed two demons with a knife, he couldn't deny the existence of such weapon. Not that he would agree to this option all the time, but sometimes they might get into a situation where they couldn't afford thinking about the human these demons possessed. God, how did their situation become like this? It was supposed to be a life of hunting monsters and sometimes low demon. How did they manage to screw up and let Hell rained on earth? Could he leave Sam alone in this kind of world?

He glanced at his brother who had salt and fuel ready on his side warily. His time on earth would be finished in a year and it was not enough to ensure that Sam could live peacefully afterwards without having demons hanging over him. Even now what Azazel told him before he died still rang on his ears. Sam still had Bobby around when his deal was up, but would Bobby be enough to handle Sam? Even now he was troubled to find a way to stop Sam from trying to stop his deal without telling him the truth. He glanced slightly to Elaine who stood next to Tamara, comforting the older woman as they stood in front of Isaac's graveyard. If anyone could find some way to stop the deal, he knew it would be Elaine. That was why he was so against on Bobby called her in because Sam would meet her and he would ask for her help. Then Dean─ he had to deal with Sam dead because the deal was off.

"Think she's going to be alright?"

Sam' question brought him back to reality. "No," he watched as Tamara sobbed on Elaine's shoulder, "definitely not." Then he noticed Bobby came out of the house, looking thoroughly exhausted. "Well, you look like hell warmed over."

"You try exorcising all night and see how you feel."

"Means you're losing your touch, old man," Elaine said as she walked over to them, leaving Tamara standing over her husband's graveyard alone. "She just need a time alone," she added when she noticed they glanced to Tamara.

"Any survivors, Bobby?"

Bobby heaved a sighed, "well, the pretty girl and the heavy boy, they'll make it. Lifetime of therapy bills ahead but still…"

"Elaine, you have any idea who might have the knife? I mean─ it's pretty much done what your blade do."

Elaine shrugged her shoulder, "there are supposed to be few of those around, but I never get a chance to look at them."

"Any reason why you don't tell us?"

"Because I got it from Hell, sweetie. Unless you want to dive into the pit earlier and grab one of those?"

Dean rolled his eyes before turning to his brother, "I'm just gonna ask it again─ who was the masked chick? Actually, the more troubling question would be, 'how come a girl can fight better than you?'"

"Two demons, Dean. At once."

"─and there  _is_  a girl can fight better you, sweetie. Remember?" Elaine drawled, swaying her blade to him. "You might recall the time with werewolves? Didn't you need help because you recklessly jumped into their hideout?"

"Shut up, Corbett." Dean snapped at her, causing her to smirk back at him, knowing she still could rile him up even after these years.

"Well, if you want troubling question, I have one for you," Sam added, "if we let out the seven deadly sins, what else did we let out?"

Dean's face changed into troubled expression. Sam had just expressed the same question he had been thinking over and over since last night. "You're right," he lighted a matchbox and tossed it down the pyre, burning those bodies inside, "that is troubling."

He didn't show it but his eyes glanced at her when they started packing. Even after the bonfire settled down and Tamara prepared to leave, she was still there, leaning on her cars while watching him closely. She didn't say anything, only stood there, as if waiting for him to come to her. But he ain't gonna do anything. He wouldn't satisfy her by coming there so he avoided her. He busied himself, checking over his car and their weapon supply back on the trunk before throwing their duffel bags there. Still he couldn't stop glancing at her car and there she was, staring at him. He watched as Bobby exchanged few words with her before he went to his car and left them. Yet she didn't move an inch even after Bobby left.

"You sure you don't want to talk to her?" Sam said quietly as he dumped his own duffel bag into the trunk, earning an annoyed look from his brother. He raised his hands in defense, "All right, all right, just giving an advice. Something happened between you two, right? That's why you kind of avoiding her like hell? She seems okay if we ask, you know, for help about your deal. It's okay to ask for help, Dean."

"We're not discussing about this, Sammy," Dean said with his warning tone, "not a word about it."

Sam sighed, "come on, man. I mean, what happened between you and her that you don't want to ask for her help? Did you cheat on her or something?"

"Like I said, none of your damn business!" Dean said while closing down his trunk angrily. He glanced to the other car still parked near his and stalked there, unable to pretend that he didn't notice she was still watching him. Dean stopped his angry stalk when he was few inches away from her, breathing down heavily as he stared at her smug face. She knew he would storm at her and talked to her if she kept watching him openly like that. "What the hell do you want, Corbett? We're finished here!" he snarled.

"I don't want anything, sweetie," she said, faking confusion, "merely here to make sure no other demons hiding around. Wouldn't want you to be hurled into pit earlier than your time, would we?"

"Now you listen here, I don't need your crap okay? You come here because Bobby asked for your help, not me. So since we don't require any of your assistance anymore, you can get your pretty ass back to where you belong."

Elaine tapped her chin, as if thinking about something, "are you sure about that?" she looked up back to him, "I know there is something troubling your mind."

"There isn't." he stressed it out, "now get going, Corbett."

"Really, sweetie? Not even," she took out her blade, "this one?" She saw his eyes flickered towards her blade quite long before he stared back at her, "you saw how it works against demons. It's a pretty good thing to get you out of your deal, don't you think?" she swayed her blade in front of him, trying to entice him took the blade away from her

Dean grabbed her hand, stopping her from waving the blade. "I don't need your pity or your help, Corbett," he leaned down and tightened his grip on her wrist, "I'm not getting out of this deal, no matter what you, Sam, or Bobby tried to do."

"I know," she whispered and her playful expression was gone from her face. She knew it the moment she heard about the deal but still it hurt when he spoke it out, as if he didn't trust her to find a way out. Elaine raised her hand and touched his cheek slightly, "I always know what you're thinking, Dean." She watched his expression flattered slightly, which made her had an urge to pull him into her embrace and kissed him, but she stopped before he went defensive again. She stared right into his green eyes, as if trying to find something, before sighing and stepped away from him. Taking a deep breath, Elaine took something from her bag inside the car and turned back to him with her playful face plastered back. "Remember the one girl you mentioned before? The yoga girl?"

"What? Lisa?" Dean looked at her as if she grew another head, not catching what she was trying to do. "What did you do?"

She threw him a small paper, "take a breather, won't you?"

He looked down to the paper, an address written in it. Did she try to meddle on his affair again? "I said I don't need─" he stopped when he felt her lips pressed into his. Logically he should have pushed her away if he really wanted to avoid her, but before he could make up his mind, she pulled away. He incredulously stared down at her who acted as if nothing happened and went inside her car, still didn't catch on her apparent mood swing.


	2. Information, Information, Information

**_Information, Information, Information_ **

There was still no sign of apocalypse coming down the earth since they defeated seven deadly sins. Yes, there was omens popping out randomly across the country and hunters still informed her that the demons number seemed to not disintegrate even after they exorcised large numbers of them. Yet she couldn't find any significant reason behind these large attacks aside from feasting to celebrate their freedom. Azazel died and Sam would not lead them so they just do whatever they wanted, which was very annoying. They had no coordination, appeared randomly, attacked random cities, and there was no way on predicting their movement. More importantly, regardless of what kind of demons she captured, she couldn't get any information she wanted because they had no chain of command. The only demon she thought might be replacing Azazel was Lilith and even she seemed to disappear under her radar.

Not to mention, no demons came to her for information. Regardless of what happened, there were always demons coming after her for information, either willing to pay or trying to use force to gain it. Even her demon informants seemed to avoid her like hell, well aside for one. Even that one evaded her summoning until the very last minute, as if he knew when she was desperate for his help, but still refused to disclose whatever going on among the demons, if there was any. The only whisper that worth being listened to was Dean Winchester's deal. Deal of the century, as they dubbed it. Elaine bit her lips; she didn't understand how it could be deal of the century. The Winchesters had been pain in the ass for demons, she knew that, but Dean was not the first Winchester who struck a deal with crossroads demon. John did it to save Dean but the demons didn't seem to make huge deal out of it. So why Dean?

There was nothing good coming out from pondering it over and over again, yet she couldn't be able to take it off her mind. How did Azazel orchestrate the whole scenario so that Sam died and Dean would strike a deal to save it? And why did they give him a year? If they needed Dean for something, they would have pressed him to have his soul sent to Heaven right away. If they were just happy to have their claw on another Winchester, why didn't they just let him live ten years? What was she missing out? She needed to find the truth,  _not_  because of Dean. The hunters knew almost everything about Gate of Hell by now, except the detail on how it happened, and they knew the demons had wagered a war against them now. Sooner or later, they would demand to know what actually those demons wanted and the first person they would turn to were Bobby and her. If they couldn't give them a satisfied answer, they would take it to the Winchesters. Elaine glanced at her bottom drawer and sighed. She really hated using it because she had to turn off fire alarm just in case and clean it by herself because her call-in maid would be suspicious, but she didn't have any choice.

She always stored the ingredients for summoning ritual on every hideout she obtained. No one knew when or what they needed to summon, so she always made sure she wouldn't run out of ingredients. She cleaned one of her side table and placed seven candles in specified order then she drew lines connecting them. The candles were then lit and a bowl of mixed herbs was ready. Taking out one of her kitchen knife, she slashed her palm and let her blood dropped into the bowl. " _Et ad congregandum I Eos coram me_ ," then she threw lit matchstick into the bowl, causing small explosion. Elaine grabbed a hand cloth nearby and pressed it against her wound. It wasn't a long waiting time before she felt someone appeared on her house. She turned slightly and smirked when a demon appeared inside the Devil's Trap.

"Really, Elaine?"

Elaine shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly, "just a bit precaution, that's all." She glanced to see the annoyed expression on the demon's face, "hey, at least I gave you comfortable sofa to sit on," she gestured to a leathered armchair inside the trap. The demon huffed at her before making herself comfortable on the sofa. "Red wine? I just got it from a vampire. Château Mouton 1986. Very exquisite and very, very expensive."

"Still maintaining high class life, I see. I thought you would hit the road permanently after seven deadly sins."

"Just because those demons caught us off guard slightly doesn't make me want to leave this comfort immediately." Elaine offered a glass of red wine which the demon reluctantly took and sniffed at it. "There is no holy water or salt in that wine, Ruby," she rolled her eyes, "even I'm not that heartless."

Ruby scoffed at her, "I don't see you saying otherwise when you tortured that demon from two weeks ago," but she drank the wine anyway and grimaced at the taste of it, "Nope. I can't see why you insist on having expensive wine when the beer I bought in grocery store near here is way better."

"You really can't appreciate finest thing, can you?"

"I see why you get along with him."

Elaine merely tipped her glass towards her, "what can I say? We both want the best for our life."

The female demon looked around her surrounding for the first time. Her eyes narrowed when she didn't recognize the place. The furniture and decoration still screamed out Elaine's preferred lifestyle but Ruby knew the hunter would never call her into her private penthouse, not after the last accident. "You changed your condo again?"

"Don't be silly. It's one of my safe house. I just bought it last month. What do you think?"

"You really waste those piles of money," Ruby commented before turning her attention to the informant sitting in another armchair in front of her, "so? What could you possibly want that you have to summon me  _and_  trap me?" She watched warily as Elaine placed down her wine glass and walked over her pantry. Her body stiffened when she noticed the blade on Elaine's hand. "Are you resorting to torture me now? Just because he didn't want to answer you? You know I have no ties with other demons now."

Elaine sighed and placed the blade on her side table, "relax, would you? Since when are you easily scared like this?"

"Since when are you trapping me under Devil's Trap?" Ruby shot back.

"I heard something interesting during my encounter with seven deadly sins. Sam Winchester told us that there is a woman who saved him and apparently her knife had the same ability as my blade. It can kill demons," she maintained her gaze on the trapped demon, "there is only one woman I know that fit his description and I recall she also tried to coerce Winchester's location from me. Anything you want to tell me, Ruby? Adding with why you're following me to find them?"

Ruby straightened her posture, staring back at the informant in front of her. She knew she couldn't manipulate this woman easily. Elaine Corbett didn't become the best informant in their world without any skill. She knew how her comrades tried to force her spilling out everything she knew but they always failed. She might look like a naïve, rich girl who was unexpectedly thrown into this world, but she was the most dangerous woman Ruby had ever met. She had successfully overturned numerous deals into her advantages and gained everything she wanted. Elaine was not like Sam Winchester who immediately believed her once Ruby told him that she could help him to break Dean's deal.

"You do realize this silence is not making it easier, right?" Elaine put her hand on her hips and stared at the demon expectantly but when the demon didn't say anything, she sighed heavily. "Ruby, are you trying to make me threaten and torture you? Because I will and I'm not going easy just because I know you. Why. Are. You. Saving. Sam?"

"Would you believe it because I wanted to?"

Elaine scoffed, "don't play me as if I'm newbie, Ruby. I know you and I know how manipulative bitch you are. You're not saving Sam because you want to. There is something that you want." She leaned back on the wall, "what is it?"

"Do you know the demons they let out from the Gate?" Ruby relaxed her posture and leaned back, knowing she had Elaine's full attention on her, "they're the army Azazel build for Sam to lead on."

"Yes, I know  _that_. Care to add something I don't know?"

"But Sam is free from Azazel's clutch now. Those demons are warrior, Elaine, conditioned to follow their General, so what do you think they will do when they found out that their General didn't want them, hm? You only see one of the two options now, euphoria, killing everywhere and whatever they want. Sooner or later, the second option will come out." Ruby leaned forward and smirked at her captor, "the demons who wanted revenge on the General who abandoned them and what would you think happen to Sam?"

Elaine tightened her hold on her blade. She tried not to think of that scenario since the Gate opened, of what the unleashed demons' thought of Sam. "Why should I believe you for this?"

"Because you need someone to say that aloud so you can accept it. I know you. There is no way this scenario hadn't passed your mind," Ruby looked at her pointedly, "you know the real story behind the Gate and you made sure other hunters didn't know anything aside the fact that it was Winchesters who let the Gate opened. Tamara and Isaac didn't want to work with them because Isaac didn't trust the guys who let that happen and you know some other hunters thought the same thing. What would you think happen when hunters managed to capture the demon who wanted the second option? This is war time, Elaine," she stressed out when she noticed Elaine's troubled expression, "and you can't afford believing hunters wouldn't agree on something with demons. Dean Winchester will die in a year and after that Sam will be alone with only you and Bobby to protect him. Do you think both of you can protect him every seconds? Those hunters and demons would not stop until they got their revenge!" Ruby took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, "so tell me, why can't I save Sam?"

Elaine looked away, unable to answer. She hated that Ruby was right, she hated that what she suspected might happen. "How about the other players?" she glanced at the surprised demon, "oh don't look surprised like that, Ruby. The Gate is opened and do you think I don't know that Lilith would the first one who fled? This is why you trying to hide yourself, because of Lilith. What does she want?"

"She's, surprisingly, been idle."

"Is she?"

Ruby shrugged her shoulder, "there has been no movement from her side. Either she was trying to rebuild that army and do whatever Azazel wanted us to do or she really is idle, enjoying her freedom," she glanced down to her empty wine glass, "I take my sentence back. Your wine is surprisingly good." She raised her empty glass to Elaine who snorted in amusement and filled out the glass. "You human, always starving, that you managed to find everything edible in earth. I have to admit, your food is one of the reason why I enjoyed my free time here. Anything else you want to know, your Highness?"

"Did you find it out then? About Sam? You told me that you wanted to make sure that the crossroad demon returned the real Sam."

"It seems so."

"So there is no danger from Sam himself?"

"Not that I know of."

Elaine paced in front of the trapped demon, "but that is not possible. Azazel was gone and suddenly Sam is normal?" She glanced at Ruby who seemed to enjoy her wine, "is there something you're not telling me? How do you know if it's pure Sam?"

"Well I don't see any trace of his psychic ability when I saved him and he doesn't smell weird."

"Smell weird?" Elaine asked incredulously. That was one of the most bizarre thing she ever hear, "is that how you demons find out whether it's pure human or not? Because he doesn't smell weird?" she scoffed at the idea, "what are you, police sniffer dog?"

"Does it matter how I find it out?" Ruby rolled her eyes, "Sam is clean, alright? Azazel might do something to him but I don't think it remains in him now. What?" She asked when she noticed Elaine still gave her pointed look, "I told you everything I know. What do you expect me to know? I'm just one of the soldiers, remember? If you want to know what actually happened, why don't you search for Lilith and trap her? I bet she would  _love_  to exchange gossip with you."

"Don't get snarky, Ruby, you're still in my trap and I still can change my mind for not torturing you." Elaine glanced at the wall clock before signaling the demon to stand up. She crouched down to flip her carpet and revealed the Devil's Trap painted there. With one more look at the demon who looked back at her expectantly, Elaine smudged part of the circle, causing Ruby to freely step outside from the Devil's Trap. The demon looked around, noticing something was missing, "you don't have this room proofed, aside from this Devil's Trap. Why?"

"Why should I?" Elaine took out something from her clutch, "hex bags."

"Smart."

"I know." She put the hex bag back to her clutch and took the empty wine glass back to the pantry. Then she realized the demon was still standing in her living room, her hands crossed. "What? I thought you really wanted to leave this room immediately." Elaine gestured to the door, "you can leave, Ruby."

Ruby huffed at her, "so you expect me to give anything I know and receive nothing in return?"

"You know where Sam is and you have your protection against other demons." Elaine said as she cleaned up the side table she used for summoning ritual. "What would you need me for?"

"You owe me one."

She stopped her cleaning midway and stared back at the demon. "No, I don't. No." She raised her hand when Ruby was about to protest, "I trap you here, I demand you answers. If you don't comply with it, I would torture you, regardless of our history. So no, I don't owe you one."

"I saved Sam Winchester," Ruby said stubbornly.

"I can save him just fine, Ruby, there was no need for you to step in."

Ruby scowled at the woman in front of her. She was right. It was difficult to bend Elaine to bid her wishes, but she needed her to. She thought by complying with her request, she could make the informant slightly trusted her but apparently she was wrong. Ruby knew what she needed to do to make the other woman trusted her completely, Dean's deal, but even she couldn't do anything about it. Not because she didn't want to or she was afraid with Crossroad Demons. They were beneath her after all, she could smite them to get the deal removed. The problem was the demon who actually holds Dean's deal. Even she knew it was suicidal to try and take Dean's deal away. After all, that demon was the one she had been hiding from. "Fine," she gritted out, not able to find a way to change Elaine's mind.

* * *

"Where the hell have you been, man? I've been searching for you whole day."

The man stopped unloading his bags from his trunk to find his hunter colleague standing near his car, looking at him expectantly. He shut down his trunk and stared at his friend, "what do you want, Creedy?"

"What do  _I_ want?" Creedy asked incredulously at his fellow hunter's nonchalant tone, "We had a huge hunt going on earlier. Twenty demons started killing spree on town and we needed you. What is so important that you have to leave this hunt? And I'm going to smack you dead because we lost two hunters!"

Creedy watched as his fellow stared at him before taking a deep breath, running his hand over his lower face. "Okay fine, I was visiting Gordon."

"Gordon? Gordon Walker?" Creedy asked confused, "he's in prison for murder. Why are you visiting him?" The man didn't answer but merely taking a bag from passenger's seat on his car. "Kubick, what are you not telling me?" He asked when his fellow hunter walked towards parked RV nearby.

The man stopped when he was in front of his RV, ready to open the door, "come on in, I'll tell you," he gestured to his friend to come inside who sighed and followed him. To be honest, he didn't know what to begin and what to tell. These few weeks had been the roughest one he went through and he pretty damn sure every other hunter felt the same way. Hundreds of demons suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started massacres and there were only limited number of hunters to stop them. They couldn't reach the site as quick as they would since their transportation was limited while demons could change from one vessel to another and traveled through sky. There was no way to defeat them quickly. Exorcism took very long time for one demon while they had to take care quite of them at once. Holy water and salt could only hold them for long and Devil's Trap could only trap them with risk on having their comrades found a way to rescue them. In the end, their hands were tied and what the hunters could do was to minimize the damages done by demons. They couldn't say that it was war time because honestly, the demons won by majority landslide.

And then there was this whisper that these demons broke through some kind of Gate. A Gate that was supposed to be sealed completely by Samuel Colt. For hundreds of years, the Gate was secured by Colt's amazing strategy that he used railroad to form the biggest Devil's Trap they would ever see. Now it was opened and army of hundreds of demons went through and caused havoc, but no one knew the idiot who let the Gate opened was. No one cared about that at first because they were too panicked on handling numerous demons at once. The first few days were like hell. Having sleepless nights, exorcising demons until their voice hoarse, and spraying holy demons all over town. Then just when they got used to this new living style, there were whispers that it was the Winchesters, that they knew someone was going to open the Gate so they tried to stop it but failed. The Winchesters were the one who let this hell rained on them.

"So?" Creedy asked expectantly when they were inside Kubick's RV, "why do you want to visit Gordon?"

So he told him, everything he found out about Gate of Hell and everything that Gordon said. How he had warned him six months ago about an upcoming war with demons that might destroy the earth. Or how it was all these happened because Winchesters failed to stop it, but Gordon didn't believe it. He told Creedy what Gordon suspected of Sam Winchester, that he wasn't a full human. He might look like human, he might hunt with them, but he ain't one. Adding the fact that he was there on the ground zero when the Gate was opened and no one knew what actually happened there, it was logical to assume that Sam Winchester had something to do with it. It made sense that Sam Winchester might not there to stop it, but he was the one who opened it, who unleashed those demons. Either way, it was Sam Winchester and they needed to do something.

"So you got no hard evidence on this Sam Winchester guy, you're just working off Gordon's instinct?"

Kubrick snorted at his fellow hunter's doubt. He was not one who trusted people blindly. Who did Creedy think he was? Newbie hunter who blindly followed what other people said? This was Gordon Walker they were talking about. "You ever hunted with Gordon?"

"No, but I heard he's good."

Clearly not. "Good?" He laughed at the comment, "he's the best, saved my ass more times than I count. So if he said Sam Winchester's dangerous, believe him."

"Well," Creedy heaved a sigh, "he's gonna covering his tracks. Won't be easy to find."

"Last I got puts him in Nebraska three weeks back." Kubrick commented impassively.

"Not exactly fresh lead," Creedy said pointedly.

"He ain't invisible, Creedy. 'Sides I know someone who always knows everything." He glanced to see Creedy taken over something from the cupboard and was fiddling it so he grabbed it, " _don't_ play with my Jesus."

Creedy shrugged his shoulder and followed him to sit on the cramped space before he realized something. "Wait, when you say someone who knows─"

"Yeah, I'm talking about Elaine Corbett. The informant herself."

"Why not Bobby Singer? He's been around here longer than her."

Kubrick rolled his eyes, "did you even hear what I said earlier? Bobby Singer is too close to those Winchester boys. Sam Winchester might befuddle his mind already. After all, Elaine makes living by selling information like this. Pay her in her own term and we got what we need." He rummaged through his drawer, trying to find the name card he was sure he left it there. "Ah, got it!" He took out the name card and threw it to his fellow hunter. "Let's get down to business." Once they got information on Winchesters' whereabouts, they would kill Sam Winchester and the world would return to its previous peaceful state. Well, if you could count hunting monsters and few escaped demons was peaceful.

Creedy glanced down at Elaine's business card warily. He knew Kubrick for a long time, hell they started hunting together. If there was anyone he could trust more than himself in this world, it would be Kubrick, but now he questioned the sanity of his close hunter friend. History check-up he had done to this boy named Sam Winchester came out clean, as clean as a hunter's record could be. Kubrick said so himself. He was checked out as normal hunter. But then again, as crazy as it sounded, if this boy was really responsible for all that happened now, he wasn't going to let Kubrick hunted this boy alone. No one knew how powerful this boy could be and he was not going to leave his best mate for suicidal mission. "What if she didn't want to help? I mean man, he could threaten her or something."

"Who could possibly threaten Elaine Corbett and get away with it?" Kubrick scoffed at the idea that Elaine let herself being threatened. He knew that woman would smite anyone who even had a thought on trying to undermine her. "If that really happen, which I told you it's one in a billion, then we go to our hunter contacts. They will be bound to run in with the Winchesters." He checked his watch, "come on. We need to get to her place before six."

It was not that far from his RV to reach Elaine Corbett's registered house, or at least the address she put on her business card. To be honest, he never met that woman actually, only heard stories about her from other hunters. He was actually skeptical about reaching her since he didn't know whether he could trust her or not but from what he heard, she was the best chance he had to find Winchesters as fast as he could. He couldn't waste any time on this hunt, every second he spent meant more people dying from demon's attacks. Not to mention they still had to hunt other abominations as well. He had to find and kill Sam Winchester fast, like what Gordon said.

Kubrick glanced around him warily when he stepped into the building listed on her business card and approached the security post; there were rumors that Elaine Corbett received any kind of clients, not limited to hunters. What if among these crowds were demons trying to get to her? He didn't think about that rumor when he came here. What if she was helping the demons? What if she was the one who informed the demons where to attack? That would be impossible and hilarious, right? He glanced to Creedy who seemed to have troubled thought as well. Damn it, did he make the wrong choice to come to her?

The elevator they were in made a ding sound, alerted both hunters that they arrived on their destination. Kubrick unconsciously touched his belt only to find that there was no gun attached there and cursed silently. They were unarmed, defenseless, and they would be dead right away if Elaine Corbett indeed was helping those demons. He tightened his fist as the elevator door opened and they were welcomed directly into a condo. It was definitely not supposed to be belonged to a hunter. Kubrick stepped out of the elevator hesitantly while scanning his surroundings for threat. The condo didn't even look like it had hidden weapon's compartment or Devil's Trap at the very least. He poked around the elevator, trying to find the infamous informant, but the unit was too empty and silent.

Kubrick shared a wary glance with Creedy. Should they return back instead? It was not even six o'clock so she should be around here, if the information he obtained was correct. He didn't dare to venture away from the elevator since it was their only escape route. "So, how may I help you gentlemen?" They turned around sharply to find a red haired woman dressed in red tight dress walking into the foyer, her high heels clicking on the floor. She stopped in front of them, her hand on her slender hips, and stared at them expectantly.

Kubrick stared at the woman in front of him, from her sleek wavy read hair to the gold pearl necklace adorning her bare neck and upper chest to her sleeveless tight red dress and down to her gold high heels sandals. This… was Elaine Corbett? This fancy looking woman  _was_  the best informant they had? She didn't look like she could even handle cat fight. Was this a trap set by Elaine Corbett? She might watch them somewhere, laughing her ass off on their reaction. Next to him Creedy tried to speak but he was too astonished like himself. This was definitely not what he pictured Bobby Singer's protégée looked like.

"Are you hunters going to stand there like an idiot?" She asked again, raising her eyebrow, clearly annoyed that they were trying to waste her time.

Well, she clearly knew they were hunters, so she was not exactly oblivious to their world. Still, he couldn't believe that this was the same person some of his hunter friends called in panic during the night of the Gate opened. "You're─" he coughed to remove the slight nervousness on his tone, "you're Elaine Corbett?"

The woman rolled her eyes and muttered, "I swear─" She snapped her finger while pointing at the sofa nearby, indicating them to sit there. Kubrick and Creedy exchanged look before sitting down on the sofa, knowing they really had no other choice. "Who sent you here?" she demanded as she sat down, crossing her legs.

"No one," Kubrick answered confusedly.

"Really? Then how you newbie─"

"─whoa there!" Kubrick exclaimed, clearly insulted that she thought he was newbie. "I'm not a newbie, sweetheart." He blinked when a knife passed next to him and plunged few inches away from his head. "What the hell!?" Okay… he retracted his earlier opinion. This woman clearly was not a normal civilian.

"Rule number one," she said coldly, "I'm  _not_  your sweetheart or darling or anything. If anyone makes nickname, it's me." She leaned back, "but I can see you're not cowering from the knife so you're really not newbie. So─ how may I help you? Sorry about the knife," she gestured to the plunged knife, "I just want to make sure that I'm not going to babysit another newbies. Some hunters thought it would be hilarious to have me babysitting most of the time. I don't complain about the payment though."

Kubrick glanced at the knife and took it out. He really didn't see when she took out the knife or even where she hid it earlier. "Shame about the sofa," he said while putting the knife down at the table.

"It can be replaced," she waved nonchalantly, "so? Are we going to sit here and gossip or you hunters will tell me what do you need?"

"We need to find Sam Winchester." Kubrick answer, right to the point. He watched as the informant paused in the middle of taking the knife, staring at him as if she was trying to deduce something out of him, before finally taking out her phone on the table. She scrolled through her contact numbers and stopped when she found Sam's number. Kubrick exchanged another glance to the still nervous Creedy, this time full of victory, when Elaine pressed a button and put her phone on her ears, listening to the dial tone.

"Hello, darling," she purred when the other line picked up, "yes, it's me, Sam. Of course I know your number, it's not that hard stealing your brother's phone to get your number," she glanced at the hunter who seemed to be satisfied hearing her one sided conversation. "Where are you now, darling? Oh really? I heard they have a mean cheeseburger there, you should try it. Hm? Nothing." She inconspicuously reached for her blade under the sofa. "Can't I check on you both now? After all we spend such a passionate night together," she snickered when Sam sounded flustered and started babbling. "See you around, darling." She pulled her phone away and watched as her screen changed from in call back to displaying contact number.

"Where is he?"

"First thing first," she put down her phone next to her before returned her attention to the two hunters in front of her, "what is your business with Sam Winchester? And  _don't_  lie. I can smell liar miles away."

"I have unfinished business with him."

"Unfinished like?"

There was something hidden behind her question and he could see her left hand was reaching something behind her. He glanced back to the table only to find that the knife was gone. They were completely defenseless and he was pretty sure that thing behind her was a gun. He glanced again to Creedy who grew nervous by the time. Creedy was not the one who could handle suspense and mind trick for long time, he was more like frontal attack kind of guy. "What do you know of Devil's Gate being opened?" Kubrick finally spoke out when he couldn't find other way to make her leveled with him.

"More than you can imagine, but that doesn't answer my question about Sam Winchester."

"There has been rumor that Winchester boys were on the ground zero the time it opened," he watched closely as her expression didn't change, "but I guess you already know about that."

Elaine smirked. At least this hunter had some brain. "And?"

"But one thing that I'm pretty sure you don't know. They're not there to stop the Devil's Gate being opened." Now it was Kubrick's turn to smirk, seeing slight frown on her face, "Sam Winchester is responsible for opening it and I bet his brother and Bobby Singer were helping him. Our unfinished business, you ask? We need to kill him."

Damn it. Ruby had warned her about this few days ago and she thought she could buy more time to prepare for this. Warned Dean and Bobby about this rumor and then fabricated new rumor about what was going on while she was trying to found out what Azazel actually planned to do. It sounded like a good plan for her at that time but apparently things had escalated above her expectation and now she had to deal with these two hunters. It was a good thing that they came to her, at least she could extract from them what the hunters knew already. Who knew that there might be other hunters who had the same presumption and didn't go to her? "Who told you that?" Did some demons started to blurt out their plan already?

"Does it matter?" Kubrick asked, getting more impatient to acquire Sam Winchester's location. He really wished he could sneak in few knives and guns to threaten her. "We need his location  _now_  and we'll pay you for that. It's what you do, right? Getting paid to give information?" he demanded. "Where is Sam Winchester?" However he only received snorted laugh from the woman in front of him as she relaxed her posture and leaned to her sofa. "What's so funny, woman?!"

"You, actually," she drawled, "you think you can force me to give out information like that? Have you not heard of me?" she asked in amusement, though she had to admire them for bravely demanded her answer. They came here defenseless, thanks to security systems on the lobby, and they still had gut to threaten her. "I make demons spill out whatever I want them to say and you, unarmed hunters, think you can do better than those demons? You have to admit, that is very hilarious." Elaine crossed her hand in front of her, "I suggest you answer  _my_  question now."

"Gordon Walker."

"What did he exactly say?"

Kubrick rolled his eyes, "that Sam Winchester is not exactly human, he's responsible for Devil's Gate being opened, and we need to kill him."

"And you just believe it?" Elaine scoffed. "I thought you're not a newbie."

"Gordon Walker is the best damn hunter and if he said that," Kubrick stood up, unable to hold his anger and annoyance, staring down at her," then you should believe him!"

"Why? Just because he's supposed to be the best?" she said mockingly, " _sit_ down." Her eyes flashed dangerously, "I'm not having my guest behave like a monkey."

"Look," Creedy finally mustered up his courage and spoke out after watching those two had staring contest for few moments, causing their attention to turn to him, "it's not bad to check out the story. Perhaps Gordon is right or maybe he is just over reacting, but we need to find out what actually happened during the night the Devil's Gate being opened, okay? There are demons out there. It's not a war outside, it's massacre. Like you said, the Winchesters were said to be on the ground zero. We just want to know what actually happened."

Elaine stared at the second silent hunter, seeing that he was telling the truth. Well, at least for himself. She didn't believe the first hunter shared the same intention. "The Winchesters have nothing to do with Devil's Gate being opened. They overheard from demons that someone tried to open it and they tried to stop it." Elaine spoke out, "The responsible demon has been killed but they were too late. I can promise you my life that Sam Winchester is  _not_  responsible," she then turned back to stare at the first hunter, "so stop trying to find him out and focus on the demons instead."

Were they too late already? First Bobby Singer, now Elaine Corbett. "Did Sam Winchester corrupt your mind already?"

"Do you really believe whatever comes out from Gordon's mouth?" Elaine rose up, her high heels allowed her to stare at him with same eye level. "Sam Winchester is innocent.  _Back. Off._ "

"Are you going to help us or not?" Kubrick demanded again, "Because we will find him, with or without your help. He is not invisible and if God wanted me to find him,  _I_  will."

"I'd like to see you try." Elaine challenged him with a smirk.

Kubrick glared at that woman before eyeing her cellphone on the table. She had Sam Winchester's phone number and he could track him with that number. He quickly tried to take her cell phone before a hand got to it faster than him. "Do you really think I will let you take my cell that easy?" Elaine asked amusedly at his attempt. "Like I said, you're very hilarious." She watched as the first hunter tried to control himself to not attack her. He still glared at her for few seconds before stalking back to the elevator, followed by the still nervous second hunter. Elaine trained her eyes on those two as the elevator door opened and the first hunter turned back to her.

"Don't think you scare me off. I will find Sam Winchester sooner or later. You're not the only one we can ask for information," was his threat before he went inside the elevator.

When the elevator door was closed and it started to take them to the lobby, Kubrick kicked the wall out of frustration. They had wasted few hours to drive here, in hope that she would help them, but apparently even she was enchanted by Sam Winchester as well. If he didn't believe Gordon back then, he started to believe him more now. Okay, perhaps he didn't need to tell her that he would kill that boy, but she was already suspicious when he asked for him. Adding with her arrogant behavior, it was hard not to lose control and told the truth to force her see his way. But the way she reacted when he mentioned Sam Winchester... It was as if she predicted that someone would come and ask for him, as if she was dreading it to happen. Kubrick put his hand on his hip and the other hand on his chin, thinking over the conversation just now. She knew Sam Winchester was involved somehow and she tried to cover it up, just like Bobby Singer.

"So? What should we do?" Creedy asked when they stepped outside from the building. "We got no clue on where that boy is. No fresh lead."

"Let's consult our contacts, then. Someone will be bound to run into Winchesters."

* * *

Elaine paced around her pantry, the conversation from yesterday still playing out on her mind. Her hands were completely tied on this matter, she couldn't call her hunter contact because they would get suspicious if she told them not to inform those two hunters, named Kubrick and Creedy which she found out after running their face on the database, if they ran into Sam Winchester. She was halfway to call Ruby instead and asked for her help but she still couldn't trust that demon, regardless the fact that her warning had just came true. Who knew, it might be Ruby who persuaded Gordon to hunt Sam Winchester instead? Gordon Walker might be a damn good hunter, but sometimes he let his anger got through him. Well, that was what she thought at first, but after she heard what he did to Sam and Dean, she really doubted his sanity. Yes, she heard rumor that a demon warned Gordon about the upcoming war and that Sam Winchester might be part of it six months ago, but she didn't like how he immediately chose to hunt Sam because of that whisper. Honestly, no one should believe demon so easily like that.

But she needed to do something and quick, if she wanted to stop Sam from being hunted. The hunters would grow restless sooner or later, especially if this war would never end. She needed to find a way to assure them that Sam was not responsible on opening it, failed to stop it, yes. If what Gordon believed travelled outside to the other hunter, it would blow up uncontrollably. The hunters would shift their focus on Sam and there would be civil war between hunters, causing demons to easily win Earth over. She couldn't tell the Winchester boys or Bobby about this rumor. There was no need to drop this bomb on them, not when they had Dean's impending death hanging over their head. Yet if she waited until Dean's deal was up, would it possible to be too late? Elaine sighed as she leaned on her pantry, finishing up whiskey on her glass. Life had been so easy before the Devil's Gate being opened. Hunters ganked monsters or sometimes exorcised demons while those two species tried to terrorize the world. There was no big plan hidden on plain sight; no one orchestrated the whole thing behind the scene. Meanwhile she would play around in both sides, trying to gain allies and information as many as she could, and everyone would be happy.

She glanced at her vibrated phone on the dining table then took it. A slight smile crept on her face as she read who was calling her. "Why hello, darling. Miss me already?" she purred while walking back to her pantry, pouring another glass of whiskey for herself.

" _Um yeah, haha._ " Sam laughed nervously, even from the phone she managed to make him felt awkward. Not to mention he was trying to hide this call from Dean." _Uh, did I catch you on bad time?_ "

Had she not known his complete history, Elaine wouldn't believe that the man she was talking to was a hunter with special ability. Honestly, Sam was more like nervous kid who was not sure what to do. She took her whiskey glass and ventured to her sofa then sat there. Might as well get herself comfortable. "I always have time for you, darling," then she frowned to hear absent replies from him. "Was there something wrong?" Did Kubrick manage to locate him that easily?

_"No, not really. Well, there was something wrong but it's not a big problem. That's not what I call you about._ "

She didn't need him to spell out why he immediately called her back a day after she called him. "You want to know about Dean's deal," she cut him dejectedly. Bobby had warned her, that Sam was not giving up finding a way to weasel Dean out of his deal and he might chase her for help one day.

" _Yeah…_ "

"How is his reaction with calling me now?"

" _Um,_ " Sam laughed sheepishly, " _he didn't─ well, he didn't know that I know your number now─"_

"darling," she gasped in surprise, "are you telling me you're sneaking around to call me?" she drawled with a smirk. "You really know how to impress a girl."

" _Not exactly, he was out to grab dinner from Biggerson._ "

"Oh yes," she giggled, remembering what she accidentally found out on the internet earlier, "someone got  _very_  lucky yesterday. A year full of free food, eh?"

" _Yeah, which is why I need to talk to you quickly._ " There was chance Dean would return any minutes and he really didn't want to waste his free time talking about his 'luck'. He walked towards the window of their motel room and peeked outside to make sure he didn't see Impala coming into the parking lot. " _You told us before there is a way to get out of the deal."_

Elaine pursed her lips together and straightened up. She had wondered how long it would take for Sam to finally muster up courage to go behind Dean's back and ask for her help. "There is, but Sam, unless you can find out who has Dean's deal you can't do anything about it. Sam, you know the condition of the deal, right? If the deal is off, you died, darling, and I don't think Dean wants that."

" _But if the deal is still on, Dean died and I don't want that._ "

God. There was time when she thought Winchesters' family loyalty was ridiculous and this was one of it. "It will be a never-ending cycle. Do you think Dean won't try and stop you? Sam," she had to prepare him for the future without Dean, made him started to think about that before it was too late and not even bringing Dean back from dead would save him. "Have you thought about it?"

" _About what?_ "

"Life. Future without Dean. We are at war, darling," she said urgently, knowing the tall hunter was this close to end their call, "there is something bigger than Dean's deal."

Sam scoffed hearing it while punched the wall next to him. First those two hunters and now Elaine. Did they not understand it? He wouldn't care about anything else if Dean died. He was the only family he had left! " _Look, I don't care what Gordon said─"_

"Wait, what?" Elaine cut him, confused on hearing that name. "What do you mean what Gordon said? Sam, did Kubrick and Creedy come to you?"

_"Oh fantastic, you know each other. Yeah, they came earlier and you know what they did? They wanted to kill me!"_

Elaine could feel headache coming to her. How could those two possibly find the Winchesters so easily? The country was freaking huge and the hunters were not that huge in numbers. It was highly improbable that one of them ran into Winchesters right after Kubrick and Creedy wanted to find them. "I know, they came to me yesterday morning with the same intention, but I  _don't_ tell them your location, darling," she added hurriedly, rubbing her head. What had gotten into her yesterday? She should have warned them about Kubrick and Gordon. "I thought I can take you both off their trail but apparently I underestimate them. I really don't know" Her laptop screen displaying Sam and Dean's picture after they won in Biggerson caught her attention and she groaned. Of course. If she could find that picture in internet minutes after they were posted online, there was no way that Kubrick and Creedy could not find it. Oh those two, they really had the strangest luck ever. "They saw the picture, didn't they?"

" _Yeah_." Sam paused slightly, recalling the conversation with Kubrick earlier, " _is that what other hunters think of me? That I have something to do with opening the Gate?_ "

There was no point on lying now, wasn't it? He would find it sooner or later, better she told him now so he could prepare for it. "If this rumor keeps going on, then yes, more hunter will come after you, wanting to get revenge. Not to mention, the demons you were supposed to lead or something. I still don't get how Azazel expected you to lead a demon army."

Sam scoffed, " _yeah, and you thought it's better to let Dean's deal still on?_ " He said sarcastically.

"I didn't say I'd prefer Dean's deal still on, Sam," Elaine rolled his eyes. These Winchester boys always played their emotion first, never thought to think over it first, just like Gordon and those two hunters. She sighed. Were all hunters like that, aside from her and Bobby? "I told you, unless we find out who has Dean's deal, we can't do anything about it."

" _Fine. I'll find out who it is, but you will help, right?_ "

"Of course, Sam," she said softly with a tone Sam never heard her used before, "I will help you."

A familiar sound caught his attention from outside and his eyes widened when he noticed a familiar Impala strolling back to the parking lot. " _Ok, cool. Um, I'll talk to you later?_ _Dean's coming. Bye._ " He said hurriedly and ended the call, letting out a relieved sigh as he plumped down to his bed. Just when he thought he started to calm down, Dean decided to open the door loudly with a bang, causing his heart jumped in surprise. Sam turned around and huffed at his brother, "dude!"

Dean grinned, satisfied that his loud entrance managed to scare his brother. After having the worst luck since he lost the rabbit's foot, Sam seemed to be more on guard and wary on his surroundings, which made scaring him sounded fun. He closed the door loudly and grinned when Sam slightly jumped again on the sound. The grin was widened when Sam threw him his best bitch face and looked away with a scowl. Dean threw himself on the empty bed when he noticed Sam's phone lit up. "Oh, someone got a text," Dean said with a sing-song voice and reached out for the phone before Sam could stop him. "Sammy, you're so famous!" He rolled back to his bed, trying to avoid Sam who immediately lunged at him. They were wrestling for quite some times until Dean managed to push Sam away by pushing his face as he opened the unread text. His playful face changed into frown and he crushed his grip on the phone.

"What? Who is it, Dean?"

Dean threw the phone at him and stood up, clearly angry after reading the text. Sam glanced at his brother's angry face confusedly then he glanced down to read the new text. He mentally groaned when he read the text sent by Elaine. "Dean, it's not"

"not what, Sam?" Dean turned around, "I told you not to try and find how to break the deal. You call her for that, don't you?" He accused him, "I'm not having you dead!"

"And I'm not having you dead either!" Sam exclaimed back, standing up as well, "look, you and Bobby said it yourself, that she is the best damn informant we have, that she have connection with demons and such. She can help us find a way out, Dean. Just this once please, let us helps you."

How many times did they have to have this conversation? How many times did he have to shout it out to his brother that he wouldn't have him dead? How many times should he spell it out for Sam to understand his reasoning? He did this for him, so that he could have the life he wanted without having Dean or their dad around. If Dean died, Sam could return back to his normal life, back to applying for law school like he wanted before Dean dragged him back to this world. He agreed to this deal in heartbeat, even if he could only live for another minute, because Sam could still have a better future, not him.

Sam watched as his brother paced around the room in anger. "Dean"

"Not another word, Sam," Dean looked at him pointedly, "you delete that woman's number and never speak to her again," he stalked back to his bed before he turned back again, "how did you get her number anyway?" he asked incredulously.

"She's the one who called me actually, said she had my number when she took your phone."

Dean stared at him as if he grew another head, "she's notwe're not even that close that she could take my" then he remembered two times they were quite close to each other then quickly fished out his phone. To his horror, he found that she added her number on his phone and no matter how he tried, he couldn't delete it. "Son of a bitch!"

"Yeah," Sam said dryly.

"But I meant it Sammy,  _no calling her_. Okay?"

Sam waited until he was sure Dean was already sleeping before he took out his phone.  ** _Try not to get yourself killed for that, darling. Call you soon xx._**  He wasn't sure how great she was on fishing out information but at least there was another player on the board. Three of them could figure out how to get Dean out of his deal. He gripped his phone tight, praying that they would find a way soon.

* * *

The mission he gave to Kubrick to kill Sam Winchester didn't end as he hoped it would be, soon and quick. At least Kubrick was somehow determined to hunt Sam Winchester and finish him off even though his reasoning was a bit off on his opinion. Hell, he always thought Kubrick was already a bit off when they met for the first time on their hunt. Jesus gave him a sign that he must hunted Sam Winchester because he could find that boy in less than a day was the craziest motivation he ever heard, especially with their lifestyle background. Well, as long as that could keep him motivated to find Sam Winchester, he would swallow his insult and let that man worked it off. He just needed to wait until Kubrick found a way to get him off of the prison then he could join the hunt. After all, that's what been keeping him alive on this hell hole.

**_Sam Winchester must die._ **

Those words had been whispering to him every single night and day, haunting his every move. This was his only drive to survive this dump, keep him motivated trying to search a way to escape this place, and he needed to get out of this place quick. He missed living on the road, the adrenaline every night, and hunting monsters, especially vampires. There was war outside unknown to the civilians' eye and his hand trembled whenever he thought about it, his blood boiled by the mention of it, yearning to join his fellow hunters on the hunt. He could have been out there on the street, decapitating demons and monsters all he wanted, but instead he was stuck on this small cubical place. All because of that damn Winchesters. Oh he knew the younger Winchester was the one who tipped the police about weapon arsenals on his trunk. That action only fueled his suspicion that Sam Winchester was not human as they thought.

Just few more days… Few more days on this damn boring hell and he would join the killing spree outside.

"Gordon Walker!" An officer came to his cell and smacked the door with his baton, causing loud noise and startling him. He sat up in response and barely glanced to the man in uniform. "Get out, you got a visitor."

Impressive. Kubrick managed to create an escape plan in less than two days. Perhaps he should give that man and his weird belief more credit. Gordon couldn't keep the feral grin out of his face as he was escorted out his cell and down to the hallway, one step closer to his key to freedom. This was it. Once he knew what Kubrick planned to get him out of this place, he could kiss this place goodbye. He was about to turn to where the visitor reception usually held when the guard stopped him. "I thought I have a visitor," he said, slightly confused.

"You have but not in here. Get a move on." The guard pushed him to walk straight again. He pulled him through another hallway and pushed him into an empty room. Gordon frowned as he looked around the room. This was a private room where mostly used by the attorneys when they wanted to talk to their charge. He didn't hire a lawyer and his case was closed months ago, so why would the guard take him here instead? Kubrick definitely couldn't pull a string to book this room, as much as he enjoyed the privacy. So who his visitor might be?

He was pushed down to one of the chair, glaring to the guard who merely walked off to the corner and stood there. Gordon glanced down to his handcuff then to the guard and then to the door. Was this possible part of Kubrick's scheme to get him out of jail? What he was supposed to do now? Run like hell to the entrance? His grip tightened as he glanced around warily. Was that guard possessed by demon? Did they decide to attack prison now? He rustled with his handcuff slightly, trying to find a way to wrestle out of it, when a thought invaded his mind. Did they target him somehow, because he wanted to kill Sam Winchester? "Do I really have a visitor here?" He said to the guard who chose to ignore him and snorted. This was getting ridiculous. How long did he have to wait for his visitor?

Suddenly the door opened and came another guard inside. Gordon tugged at his handcuff frantically, didn't like how this scene looked like. He was not going to die in the hand of demons in a handcuff before he finished his mission. "This way, Miss." Gordon looked up to see a red haired woman in blue dress coming in. He frowned, trying to remember where he had seen her before since she looked familiar. She walked in and dropped her bag on the table and stared down at him, "Hello, Gordon."

"Do I─ Wait─" Then he realized why she seemed familiar to him. Her voice─ damn it! "You bitch!" Gordon immediately stood up and was about to lung after her when she took out her baton and pushed it against his chest, stopping him from moving closer to him.

"It's alright, boys, I can handle this," she spoke out when the guards was about to restrain the prisoner. "You may leave." She waited until the guards complied and left those two alone before pushing him down to his chair. "I see you haven't changed, Gordon," she said pulling her baton away and returned it to her bag. "Paranoid much?"

"I see you're Sam Winchester's bitch now." Gordon sneered, causing her to pause, "what did he offer you? Become the Queen of Hell?"

Elaine turned around and sat on the table in front of Gordon, crossing her legs, "well, I think that's a better offer than rot in prison, don't you think? Don't─" she added, when he was about to stand up again, "I can make you rot here forever Gordon,  _don't_  play with me." Although she was hoping he would ignore it and attack her. At least she could use self-defense as motive to kill him.

"What are you doing here? Trying to kill me?"

She rolled her eyes, "don't be so boring, Gordon." She stood up from the table and walked over to take something from her bag. "I heard something interesting amongst the hunters. Apparently someone decided to hunt our own and when I said someone, I mean another hunter. You wouldn't happen to know about that, would you?"

Gordon stared straight to her, "no," he answered low dangerous voice. "Is that all you need to know?"

"So eager to get rid of me, Gordon? Why? Waiting for Kubrick to come?"

"What do you want?" he demanded, not in the mood of playing mind with her.

She threw him a file, "that is a list of what you could be charged  _if_  I found out that you won't tell Kubrick to stop spreading rumors and hunting Sam down. Oh," she smirked when he didn't do anything to the file on the table, "I forgot, you're cuffed. Let me open it for you." Her smirk widened when his glare intensified as she opened the file slowly, "here you go. Would you like me to read it for you too? Just in case you can't read."

Oh how he would gladly sacrifice everything to wring her neck and be done with it. He never liked her since their first meeting. All those arrogance and over confidence she had around her made him wanted to tie and torture her slowly. She was just the new kid in town and yet she acted as if she owned the town. "Those are not my doing."

"Maybe not," she shrugged nonchalantly, "but I'm sure judging your criminal record, it would be hard for judges not to believe it, don't you think?"

Gordon instead laughed in response, "Sam Winchester really got you good, didn't he?"

"The problem here is  _not_  Sam," Elaine dropped all her pretense and glared down at him, "there is war outside, Gordon, and I'm not having the hunters to split side and attack each other just because of your stupid rumor. I'm  _not_  going to let those demons win because of your idiotic mind."

"Or perhaps that is your true intention and you come here to eliminate me first," Gordon leaned forward, "because you see, I don't believe any shit out of your mouth."

"Are we  _really_ going to make this conversation again, Gordon?" Elaine asked. This was not their first conversation regarding Sam Winchester. Gordon visited her once after he escaped from the demon's clutch and demanded her information on Winchesters' whereabouts. He did inform her about the warning from that demon about impending war and Sam Winchester was one of the special children prepared to lead the demon army. She vehemently disagreed, obviously, not believing Dean or Bobby wouldn't do anything to stop it from happening. Although after that first conversation, her demon informant confirmed that Azazel was cooking something down there and Sam was unwillingly involved since he was six months old. "Sam Winchester is unwilling pawn on Azazel's plan and  _you_ have no proof that he is not actually human."

"Oh I will find it."

"How? By using Kubrick?" Elaine scoffed, "even I know something is off with that guy the minute he entered my apartment." She stood up and gathered her bag. "I'm not going to waste another breath and threaten you, so back off, Gordon. By the looks of it, Winchester boys might be the only hope we have left against those demons.  _Don't_ play around with me."

"What? Are you going to get your demon friend bite me?"

"No, that would be too kind," she walked towards the chained prisoner and rested her hand on each side of the chair as she stared down at him, eyes glinting with promised threat, "I will send his hellhounds to you and they will chew at you slowly bit by bit so you can feel how it is when you came to Hell. If I heard one mere whisper that you're out for Sam Winchester, I swear I will make you suffer for eternity." She held her stare at him for few moments before pulling away and walked towards the intercom. "I'm finished here."

"He's hypnotized you and I will prove it to you!" Gordon shouted as the guards coming in and pushing him to walk outside the room. He forced his head to turn around to stare at her retreating figure. "We're going to lose the war, Elaine Corbett, and it's all because of you! Sam Winchester must die! You can't deny all the facts! He's not a human!"

* * *

She had arranged that Gordon would be transferred to another holding cell with higher security, at least it could hold him off longer in prison. Although she had no idea when the warden decided to move him and she could only hope it would be soon. Or Gordon would have a plan to get him off the prison and hunted Sam down. If only she could push his transfer immediately but even she could not obtain such authority. Now she only needed to find a way to deliver the news to Dean without upsetting him more. He never replied to her texts and she knew she had programmed his phone so that he could not delete her number. Maybe she could ask Bobby to help her but she wanted to be the one who delivered it. She did not want to pass on opportunity to talk to him again.

Until she stepped out of her elevator. She froze tensely when she noticed someone was inside already since her light was on, but she relaxed immediately once she recognized who it was, even with he had his back facing her. "Let me guess," Elaine spoke out, causing the figure in front of her turned around, "Bobby?"

"He's the only one I knew who keep updated info about you." Dean walked out of the shadow, looking around, "I see you kept the layout and furniture."

Elaine smiled slightly, "well, I was feeling a bit nostalgic at that moment." She walked towards her coffee table, took off her ridiculously high heels, and put down her bag, "but I'm guessing you're not here to rekindle memories?" she asked while rummaging her fridge to get a bottle of beer she knew she kept somewhere. Dean, just like Ruby, was not the one who appreciated fine taste.

Dean caught the beer can she threw at him, glanced down at it before throwing it away to the sofa carelessly, "we need to talk, Corbett," he said with a serious tone, something she couldn't help but wanted to tease on, but apparently he caught that intention as well, "and don't try to flirt your way out of it."

She peered at him closely before sighing and walking back towards him, "you know about my call with Sam."

"─and I read your text to him after that." Dean added dryly, "what do you want, Elaine?"

"What makes you think I want something from you?" she asked in a curious tone as she watched his every move closely.

Dean trained his eyes on her as he moved closer to her until they were few inches apart. "You were literally M.I.A from my life since we parted in Seattle two years ago and suddenly you dazzle in as if those two years didn't exist for you? You know I'm not going to stop my deal. I know when someone needs something from us and I can smell it from you miles away," he hissed, "so tell me what the hell you want and get out from my life again."

There it was again. It came back again to the event two years ago. She had been careful not to mention anything about that night, not even to Bobby, so they could make a fresh start without any questioning from Bobby. Yet it still kept haunting her back. She clenched her hand, trying not to get drown in that memory again. Elaine stared right to his bright green eyes and was about to touch his cheek when his hand shot up and grabbed her wrist, stopping her, and she sighed. She didn't like it when Dean was in his defense mode because he always lashed back regardless what she said. "Dean, believe it or not, I don't have hidden agenda for you."

"So what, huh? Are you coming back because you heard my deal and now you pity me?" He asked, sounding angrier every second, "because I don't need your pity, Corbett!" He slapped her hand away, a bit more forceful, and turned away from her, trying to calm himself.

"I  _don't_  pity you, okay? Devil's Gate is a huge deal, Dean, because it affects everyone around us. We need to rally our forces, to find out what the demon actually wants, what their big plan is, and Dean," she turned him away so she could face him, "like it or not, we have to work together."

He was this close to agree with her. How could he not? In this same apartment set up as she had in Seattle two year ago, all it did was reminding him of when they holed up in this place multiple times. She was very close to him, her hand on his chest felt very warm. He could hear her breathing and slightly erratic heartbeat. They could return to that time now if he wanted. He only needed to let go of his stubbornness and he wouldn't have this aching headache anymore. There was nothing to regret, right? He was going to Hell after this, why would he have to keep hesitating? Dean stared down at her eyes, was about to submit to his desire and kissed here. But when he noticed her eyes widened slightly, it reminded him of that fateful night in Seattle. He froze and stepped away from her and made sure his face didn't betray his sentences. "I happen to like our previous arrangement better," and she frowned hearing it, confused on what changed his mind. She knew he had furious thought on giving up this pretense, but what gave it away? "So I suggest you just send the information to Bobby and he will pass it to me and Sam. Stop trying to cancel my deal because I'm not going to change my mind. Ever." He turned around so he couldn't see the hurt look on her face, "and stop popping into our life, Corbett."

Her mouth parted but there were no words coming out. It was one thing to have him pulled a disappearing act and not contacted her and it was another thing to hear him spell it out in person. She could feel her eyes glistening with tears as she watched him headed back to the elevator, but she couldn't let him leave. Not when she also had something to tell to him, about Gordon and his intention to Sam. So she quickly wiped away her tears, grateful that she chose waterproof make up, and spoke out, "I'm afraid I can't do that."

"What?" Dean turned around and was ready to berate her when she cut him off.

"Sam told me you had a run in with Kubrick and Creedy."

Dean scoffed, remembering the two idiot hunters who wanted to kill his brother, "yeah, so?"

" _So_ … you know what their action implied right?"

"That they're stupid idiot for thinking Sam is the one who open the Gate?" Dean rolled his eyes, not understanding why she thought this was important enough to stop him from leaving.

"No," she rolled her eyes, "it meant that Sam might not be safe, either from demon or other hunters, unless we found out what the demons want. Dean, your deal is going to come to an end soon and if you're gone, who do you think can protect Sam at all time? Who will come to his rescue when he was caught off guard like that time with Kubrick? He can't fend off both demons and hunters at the same time," she said exasperatedly, hoping to get him understood how dire Sam's situation was.

Dean closed his eyes, hoping he didn't just hear that from her. He thought it would just be a misunderstanding, that those two morons would not try to kill Sam again after he scared them off. Dear God, what was happening to their life now? Dean sunk down to her sofa, not caring that few seconds ago he was going to leave this place. He dragged up his hand, covering his lower face, as he tried to process what he just heard. Azazel warned him before, didn't he? That the newly revived Sam was not entirely real Sam. Was this what he was hinting on? "What did you find out?" He asked hoarsely, glancing at her who already sat next to him with her hand on his folded arms. She would never lie about this kind of problem just to catch his attention. She was not that heartless to him.

"Only that there were quite numbers of demons who wanted to have revenge on Sam for abandoning them," she said quietly, "but I still don't know what they are planning to do now and how many they are out there. I do know that if some hunters captured these demons─"

"─they can trick the hunters to hunt Sammy instead, yeah I know," he said, still with his hoarse voice. God how come it happened like this? Couldn't he just have a restful year, now that he knew when he would die? Just few more months of only hunting without complications… "Do you know who else might think of that?"

Elaine paused slightly, not sure whether to tell him or not right now. He was too emotional now, what if he wanted to storm to the prison and killed that man right away?

"Elaine?"

"─Gordon. Kubrick came to me before he found you, I tried to throw him off your trail, but apparently he was really lucky."

Dean snorted slightly, "more like Sam got the worst luck since he lost the rabbit's foot."

"So that's how you won the Biggerson free supply," Elaine smiled slightly before it faded away, "but yeah, he told me who gave him the idea to hunt Sam instead. It was Gordon Walker, apparently they were quite close hunting buddy before Sam threw Gordon to jail."

His hand twitched, wanting to throw something after hearing that news. Fucking Gordon. He thought that problem would be gone once that hunter was behind the bars but it seemed he still created quite havoc out here. Perhaps he should go there and gank that hunter at once and be done with it. No one would miss him anyway, well maybe Kubrick, but he would do the world justice to get rid of that man. His train thought stopped when he realized something caressing his hair. He blinked and glanced slightly to his side to find that he unconsciously leaned his head to hers and she had her closest hand caressing his hair. "We'll find a way," she whispered, "both for you and Sam."

Suddenly it seemed so simple once again to just give in and forget all the consequences. Dean slightly turned his body so he could face her properly and touched her cheek, making her stared at him in surprise. It was hard to resist him, to remind him of his decision, when her mind screamed not to say anything so nothing would ruin this moment. She didn't know what made him suddenly decided to avoid her completely, to ignore all the hints she had been dropping since Seattle, but she didn't want to ruin it. Was it bad that she was secretly glad they failed to stop Azazel that she could meet him again like this? Was it vile that she was glad there was something wrong with Sam so she could stop him from leaving earlier?

Once again it was Dean who broke off just when their lips almost touched. "You find out everything about Sam and tell me as soon as you got it," he said, standing up, refusing to look at her. There was something wrong with him really. How come he could not control himself around her? Why was it so hard to resist the temptation? He really needed to get away from here. Clearly it was the effect of how eerily identical her new apartment with the one in Seattle.

"Dean," she called out, stopping him again right when the elevator door opened. He glanced slightly, unwilling to face her, at least not tonight. "Be careful," she added.

He didn't say anything and walked inside the opened elevator. When he turned around to press the button and properly face her, she couldn't help but felt her chest tightened seeing his emotionless face. Elaine parted her lips slightly, wanting to say something, when the elevator door closing in and sealed down her opportunity. She dropped down to the sofa, blinking away her tears. "Damn it..." she sighed, wiping her tears away. But she failed stopping them since she broke into sobs as Dean's rejection kept replaying on her mind. She was really in a mess, wasn't she? He kept telling her that he didn't want anything to do with her but she just had to push him until he remembered their memories together and gave up his fake tough act. She just couldn't stop wanting him to give in, could she? Her eyes traveled to the photo frame she kept on her bedside table and walked over to take it.

Was it wrong that she wanted to return back two years ago? Back when Dean and her was still seeing each other?

She caressed Dean's laughing face longingly with a hint of smile. It was rare that he laughed openly like that with delighted expression and she was lucky to have her camera around to keep that wonderful laugh forever. But that slight smile disappeared when the reality came back to her again. By this time next year this picture was the only way she could meet him. She threw herself to the bed, closing her eyes, hoping to run away from the real world, while she kept that frame close to her heart.

* * *

Dean immediately punched the elevator wall once the door was closed, letting out his frustration. Why was it so hard to keep his hand to himself around her? Just one touch from her and he turned into a goo-goo version of himself. He already made his choice two years ago about her and now he was ready to change his mind  _twice_! No, he couldn't do it, he shouldn't do it. He saw how his deal impacted on Sam's life, how he didn't want to give up to find a way to stop the deal. He didn't want that to happen to her. Not her. But she had to make it more difficult, hadn't she? She just had to be the one who dealt with demons as well, getting whispers on what could be going on down there and Sam just had to be one of the special children Azazel took interest the most. Bobby just had to contact her about the Devil's Gate and later about the seven deadly sins. Kubrick just had to go to her to ask for Sam's latest location. It just had to be her around here, hadn't it?

He took out his phone and dialed Bobby's number. "Bobby? It's me. Yeah, found her. No, I'm coming home now, is Sam there? Yeah, listen Bobby, we got something bad going on. Make sure you keep an eye on him, okay? Yeah, thanks Bobby. See you later."

Yeah, he needed to get his shit together. Sam's problem was more important and urgent than his stupid hormone. He would be damned if he didn't solve this before his time was up, with or without her help.

* * *

_Hope you guys enjoying it! Leave me a review please :) I would love to hear from you guys_


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